Neither the massive D.C. blizzard nor the legal disapproval of half of the Kansas state Court of Appeals stopped the National Pro-life Religious Council from giving Gov. Sam Brownback their National Pro-Life Recognition Award for the enactment of the “Unborn Child Protection from Dismemberment Abortion Act.”
As a result of a rare 7-7 tie decision Friday by the Kansas Court of Appeals, the appalling opinion of Shawnee District Judge Larry Hendricks’ is upheld–for now.
The dismemberment ban is not voided, but it remains enjoined from going into effect while litigation continues. The ban will be vigorously defended by the legal team of Attorney General Derek Schmidt.
Judge Hendricks ruled that barbaric dismemberment abortions cannot be outlawed because the 1859 Kansas Constitution contains a right to abortion.
In his acceptance remarks on Friday, Gov. Brownback urged that Kansas’ strong bipartisan passage of SB 95 be repeated across the nation and in the nation’s Capital.
Fr. Frank Pavone, head of Priests for Life and president of the National Pro-life Religious Council, hosted the award ceremony. He observed that the Appeals Court ruling shows that “the battle for the unborn child’s civil rights will go back and forth for now. We know, however, that the truth of that child’s humanity will ultimately triumph over the lies of the abortion industry.”
Among attendees at the PRC presentation were Mary Kay Culp, Executive Director of Kansans for Life, and Archbishop Joseph Naumann, head of the Catholic Archdiocese of Kansas City in Kansas. The Kansas Catholic Conference in testifying in support of the ban, said
“The fact that this legislation is even necessary is an indictment of our society and even the very notion of human progress…[when] we in the here and now allow our children to be torn apart, piece by piece, limb by limb.”
See photos of this event.