Gov. Mary Fallin signed legislation Monday making Oklahoma the second state to ban a common second-trimester abortion procedure that critics describe as dismembering a fetus. The measure prohibits doctors from using forceps, clamps, scissors or similar instruments on a live fetus to remove it from the womb in pieces. Such instruments are used in dilation and evacuation procedures performed in the second trimester. The bill would ban the procedure except when necessary to save a woman’s life. Critics of the bill say the procedure is often the safest to terminate pregnancies during the second trimester. Gov. Sam Brownback of Kansas signed a similar measure into law last week.

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