Kansas Supreme Court rules state constitution protects abortion rights

The Kansas Supreme Court ruled Friday that the state constitution protects abortion rights, blocking the legislature’s 2015 ban on second-trimester abortions.

In the ruling, from which only one of seven justices dissented, the court says that the state constitution’s “declaration of natural rights, which specifically includes the rights to liberty and the pursuit of happiness, protects the core right of personal autonomy — which includes the ability to control one’s own body, to assert bodily integrity, and to exercise self-determination.”