Pregnant women would have to choose only riskier, "less reliable" procedures under the 2015 law, she argued. "Defendants offer no facts and little argument about how these alternatives for bringing death promote greater respect for the value and dignity of human life as a substitute for D&E; instead, they offer only a theory," Watson wrote in her ruling. Kansas was one of the first states in the country to pass a ban on the practice, which opponents have called "dismemberment abortion." Nancy Northrup, president and CEO of the Center for Reproductive Rights, cheered the ruling in a statement, saying it will protect health care for Kansans.