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THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
KU$\textcircled{1}$nfo
WEDNESDAY, APRIL 8, 2015
PAGE 3
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Kelly Oubre and Cliff Alexander become the sixth and seventh KU freshmen to declare for the NBA draft. They join two sophomores and nine juniors, all but three of whom were players in the Bill Self era.
ORLIN WAGNER/ASSOCIATED PRESS
Kansas Gov, Sam Brownback speaks during a pro-life rally outside the Kansas Statehouse in Topeka on Jan. 22, 2013. Brownback, a strong abortion opponent, signed a bill Tuesday, April 7, making Kansas the first state to ban a common second-trimester abortion procedure that critics describe as dismembering a fetus.
Kansas governor signs nation's 1st ban on abortion procedure
JOHN HANNA Associated Press
TOPEKA — Kansas became the first state Tuesday to ban a common second-trimester abortion procedure that critics describe as dismembering a fetus.
Republican Gov. Sam Brownback, a strong abortion opponent, signed a bill imposing the ban, and the new law takes effect July 1. He and the National Right to Life Committee, which drafted the measure, said they hope Kansas' example spurs other states to enact such laws. Already, the measure also has been introduced in Missouri, Oklahoma and South Carolina.
"This law has the power to transform the landscape of abortion policy in the United States", committee president Carol Tobias said in a statement.
Two abortion rights groups that operate Kansas clinics with abortion services, Trust Women
and Planned Parenthood of Kansas and Mid-Missouri, said they're considering challenging the new law in court.
"We will become a bellwether for future introductions of this bill in the states," said Laura McQuade, president and CEO of the Planned Parenthood chapter.
Abortion rights supporters say the law, which bans the dilation and evacuation procedure and redefines it as "dismemberment;" could be vulnerable to a lawsuit because it bans some abortions before a fetus can survive outside the womb and contains no mental health exception for the mother.
A Delaware-based law professor said U.S. Supreme Court precedents over the past 15 years suggest the Kansas law wouldn't survive a challenge but added that the justices may revise past stances.
Under the law, the procedure is banned except when necessary to save a woman's life
or prevent irreversible damage to her physical health. Doctors cannot use forceps, clamps, scissors or similar instruments on a fetus to remove it from the womb in pieces.
Anti-abortion groups are confident the new law will withstand a legal challenge, based on a U.S. Supreme Court ruling in 2007 in which it upheld a federal ban on a late-term procedure described by abortion opponents as "partial-birth abortion."
But in that ruling, the court's 5-4 majority rejected an argument that the federal law would have banned the more common dilation and evacuation procedure described by the Kansas law, according to Widener University law professor John Culhane.
"It if it was so obvious that it wouldn't run afoul of the court, you would have seen a law like this sooner," he said.
official residence; his office said he would re-enact it at multiple public events later this month. A photo from Tuesday's ceremony tweeted by the governor's office showed Brownback flanked by anti-abortion leaders and two large photos of fetuses.
Abortion rights supporters said the procedure is often the safest for women seeking to terminate pregnancies during the second trimester. It accounted for about 9 percent of abortions last year in Kansas, where most pregnancies are terminated in the first trimester and the state already bans most abortions at or after the 22nd week.
Brownback signed the bill in a private ceremony at his
Brownback spokeswoman Eileen Hawley called it "a horrific procedure." But Julie Burkhart, founder and CEO of Trust Women, said in a statement that the new law is "dangerous" and "dictates to qualified physicians how they can practice medicine and treat their patients."
Officer charged with murder for shooting black man
BRUCE SMITH Associated Press
CHARLESTON, S.C. A white South Carolina police officer was charged with murder Tuesday in the weekend shooting death of a black motorist after a traffic stop.
City Patrolman Michael Thomas Slager was arrested and charged after law enforcement officials saw a video of the shooting following a Saturday traffic stop, North Charleston Mayor Keith Summey told a hastily called news conference.
Authorities say the victim, 50-year-old Walter Lamer Scott of Charleston, was shot after the officer already hit him with a stun gun. A video of the shooting released to news media outlets shows the officer firing several times at the man's back while he's running away.
Slager's attorney had released a statement Monday saying the officer felt threatened and that the motorist was trying to grab the officer's stun gun. The attorney told The Post and Courier of Charleston on Tuesday that he no longer represents the officer.
Summey said at a news conference that Slager made a "bad decision."
North Charleston Police said Slager was arrested by officers of the South Carolina Law Enforcement Division.
"When you're wrong, you're wrong," Summey said. "When you make a bad decision, don't care if you're behind the shield or a citizen on the street, you have to live with that decision."
The shooting occurred as heightened scrutiny is being placed on police officer shootings, particularly those
ASSOCIATED PRESS
Patrolman Michael Thomas Slager was charged with murder of a black motorist after a traffic stop. North Charleston Mayor Keith Summey told media Slager was arrested and charged Tuesday after a video was released.
In a separate case in South Carolina, a white police officer who shot a 68-year-old black man to death last year in his driveway was charged Tuesday with a felony: discharging a gun into an occupied vehicle. A prosecutor previously tried to indict North Augusta officer Justin Craven on a manslaughter charge in the February 2014 death of Ernest Satterwhite. But a grand jury instead chose misconduct in office, which is a far lesser charge.
that involve white officers and unarmed black suspects. A grand jury declined to indict Ferguson, Missouri, officer Darren Wilson in the fatal shooting of Michael Brown last August, leading to nationwide protests.
Craven chased Satterwhite for 9 miles beyond city limits to the man's driveway in Edgefield County. After Satterwhite parked, the officer repeatedly fired through the driver-side door, prosecutors said. The 25-year-old officer faces up to 10 years in prison if convicted of the gun charge.
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