Federal judge refuses to block Kan. abortion rules
The chief federal judge in Kansas refused Sunday to temporarily block parts of a new state abortion law, including a requirement that providers' websites link to a state site with information they dispute.
But U.S. District Judge Kathryn Vratil's ruling Sunday in a lawsuit filed by Planned Parenthood came after a state judge ruled Friday in a separate challenge that Kansas couldn't enforce the website requirement for now. Vratil noted the previous ruling, in a case filed by two doctors, in concluding that Planned Parenthood would not suffer irreparable harm if she didn't do the same. The rule was to take effect Monday.
Under the law, a provider's home page will have to provide a link to a Kansas Department of Health and Environment site on abortion and fetal development and contain a statement that the state's information is "objective" and "scientifically accurate." Abortion providers object because the state's information says that a fetus can feel pain by the 20th week of pregnancy, while the American Congress of Obstetricians and Gynecologists has said there's no evidence for such an assertion.
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The website rule is part of a sweeping law approved by Kansas legislators this year that also bans sex-selection abortions, blocks tax breaks for providers, prohibits providers from furnishing materials or instructors for public schools' classes and declares as a general policy that life begins "at fertilization." Planned Parenthood didn't challenge those parts of the law.
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http://news.yahoo.com/federal-judge-refuses-block-kan-abortion-rules-232306203.html
