Andy Mayberry, a former lawmaker who is again running for a House seat in East End in Saline County, is shown in this file photo.

The Arkansas lawmaker who crafted the state's ban on abortions after 20 weeks filed a bill Monday to restrict a method used to terminate pregnancies of women in their second trimester.

The proposal filed by state Rep. Andy Mayberry, R-Hensley, to ban abortion by dilation and evacuation would make it illegal for doctors to use surgical instruments to "dismember" a fetus within the mother's body.

The surgical procedure is used to terminate pregnancies after 16 weeks, according to the American Pregnancy Association. Abortion-rights advocates say Mayberry's bill will restrict the most commonly used procedure for women in their second trimester, which begins at 13 weeks.

The federal government banned most third-trimester abortions, or partial-birth abortions, in 2003.

"It's a very savage procedure, it's cruel and barbaric and it's something I don't think should exist in a civilized society," said Mayberry, who is the president of Arkansas Right to Life, an anti-abortion group.

Mayberry said his newest proposed law, filed as House Bill 1032, is based on model legislation by the National Right to Life group. His bill adopts language used by the national parent organization to describe dilation and evacuation as "dismemberment abortion."

The proposal would allow pregnant women to receive the procedure if the doctor determines it is necessary to prevent a serious health risk. There is no exemption for rape or incest.

Doctors who perform the procedure in violation of the law would be subject to a sentence of up to six years in prison and a fine of up to $10,000.

Mayberry said he remained concerned that his proposed law does not go far enough to prevent abortions during a specific period of a woman's pregnancy.

Abortion-rights advocates including Laura McQuade, president of Planned Parenthood Great Plains, were quick to say Mayberry's law ran afoul of previous court decisions and promised to oppose the measure.

Planned Parenthood Great Plains conducts abortions at clinics in Fayetteville and Little Rock, according to its website.

"Make no mistake, House Bill 1032 is an ideological attack designed to shame and stigmatize safe and legal abortion," McQuade said in a statement Monday. "Planned Parenthood Great Plains provides high-quality abortion care and will fight all attempts by politicians to intervene in private medical decisions where patients believe only licensed medical providers should be advising them."

Two states, Mississippi and West Virginia, have similar laws. Attempts in other states to ban the procedure have failed or have been the subject of lawsuits.

Lawsuits by abortion providers stalled the implementation of a similar ban passed by the Kansas Legislature in 2015, The Wichita Eagle reported earlier this year. The Kansas Court of Appeals split on whether the law violated the state constitution, the newspaper reported. That split upheld a lower court's order blocking the enforcement of the ban.

Rita Sklar, the executive director of the Arkansas chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union, said Mayberry's proposed ban "would fly in the face of [U.S.] Supreme Court precedent."

Declining to threaten a legal challenge should the bill pass, Sklar said her group would focus on opposing the bill during the next session of the General Assembly, which begins in January.

Mayberry previously sponsored a bill that became the Pain-Capable Unborn Child Protection Act in 2013. The bill became law after the General Assembly overrode a veto by Gov. Mike Beebe, a Democrat.

That law, which banned abortions after 20 weeks of pregnancy -- except in cases of rape, incest and to save the life of a mother -- was never challenged in court. However, a federal appeals court blocked a more restrictive abortion ban that was also passed during the 2013 session over Beebe's objections.

The Human Heartbeat Protection Act, which banned abortions after 12 weeks of pregnancy, was sponsored by Sen. Jason Rapert, R-Bigelow. Mayberry was a co-sponsor.

Mayberry is also the sponsor of House Bill 1033, filed Monday, which would direct money from Arkansas' share of the 1998 national settlement with tobacco companies to go toward home and community-based services and employment supports for Arkansans with developmental disabilities.

Gov. Asa Hutchinson, a Republican, has said he wants to use about $8.5 million from the $50 million annual payment to reduce the number of Arkansans who are on a waiting list for such services.

The law designating how the settlement money is used was approved by voters in 2000. Amending the law requires a two-thirds vote of the Legislature.

Information for this article was contributed by Andy Davis of the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette.

Metro on 12/06/2016