TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) — 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.

But 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 rethink 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 a Nebraska case in which the high court 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.

"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.

Brownback signed the bill in a private ceremony at his 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.

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Online:

The new Kansas law: http://bit.ly/1GHZRGZ .

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Follow John Hanna on Twitter at https://twitter.com/apjdhanna .

Tehran (AFP) - Turkey and Iran agree on the need for a political solution to end Yemen's war, which has raised tensions between them, Iran's president said Tuesday after talks with his visiting Turkish counterpart.

"We talked about Iraq, Syria, Palestine... We had a long discussion about Yemen. We both think war and bloodshed must stop in this area immediately and a complete ceasefire must be established and the strikes must stop" in Yemen, Iran's President Hassan Rouhani said during a joint press conference broadcast by state television.

Turkey's President Recep Tayyip Erdogan made no remarks about Yemen, but he talked at length about bilateral relations with Iran.

Iran, which supports the Huthi rebels in Yemen, has condemned air strikes by an Arab coalition led by Saudi Arabia and supported by Turkey.

Rouhani said he hoped the two countries, "with the help of other countries in the region" would contribute to "peace, stability, a broader government and dialogue" between Yemenis.

"We agree on the fact that instability, insecurity and war must cease throughout the region," he said.

Erdogan, a conservative Islamist, denounced at the end of March what he called Iran's will for "domination" in Yemen, calling on Tehran to "withdraw all its forces from Yemen, Syria and Iraq."

Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammed Javad Zarif reacted by accusing Ankara of fuelling instability in the Middle East.

Iranian newspapers and conservatives for their part denounced Erdogan's "insult" and called for his visit to be cancelled.

State news agency IRNA said Zarif is to travel to Oman on Wednesday and then Pakistan for talks on the Yemen conflict.

Turkey and Iran are also opposed on Syria, with Tehran the main regional ally of President Bashar al-Assad and Ankara supporting the rebellion.

Several ministers accompanied Erdogan, who also met Iran's supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei during his one-day visit.

Despite the tensions, the neighbouring countries want to strengthen trade to 30 billion dollars (28 billion euros) in 2015.

Erdogan pointed out that the balance of trade was unfavourable to Turkey, since "Iran exports $10 billion and imports only $4 billion in Turkish products."

And he asked for a reduction in the price of gas purchased from Iran.

"The gas we buy from Iran is the most expensive. If the price drops we can buy more," Erdogan said. "That's what a friendly country is."

He also called for expanding air links to medium-sized cities in Iran, and for an increase in electricity imports, as is already the case for several Turkish provinces.

During the visit, eight documents, particularly in the areas of transport, customs, industry and health were signed.

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Video Shows Moment South Carolina Cop Shot Driver

CHARLESTON, S.C. (AP) — A white South Carolina police officer was charged with murder Tuesday, hours after law enforcement officials viewed a dramatic video that appears to show him shooting a fleeing black man several times in the back.

North Charleston Mayor Keith Summey announced the charges at a hastily called news conference in which he said City Patrolman Michael Thomas Slager made "a bad decision."

Saturday's shooting, which began as a traffic stop over a faulty brake light, occurred as Americans grapple with issues of trust between law enforcement and minority communities after a series of deaths of unarmed black men at the hands of police. They include the deaths of Michael Brown in Ferguson, Missouri, and Eric Garner on Staten Island, New York. Both sparked protests nationwide.

In the Charleston case, authorities said the victim, 50-year-old Walter Lamer Scott, was shot after the officer already hit him with a stun gun.

"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."

A video of the shooting released to news media outlets shows the officer firing eight shots at Scott's back as Scott is running away. Scott falls on the eighth shot, fired after a brief pause. The video then shows the officer slowly walking toward him, and ordering him to put his hands behind his back.

When Scott doesn't move, Slager pulls his arms back and cuffs his hands. Then he walks briskly back to where he fired the shots, picks up an object, and returns the 30 feet or so back to Scott before dropping the object by Scott's feet.

Slager's then-attorney David Aylor had released a statement Monday saying the officer felt threatened and that Scott was trying to grab Slager's stun gun. Aylor dropped Slager as a client after the video surfaced.

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North Charleston police officer Michael Slager is seen in an undated photo released by the Charlesto …

Attorney L. Chris Stewart, who came to North Charleston a day after the shooting to represent the family, said the video forced authorities to act quickly and decisively, and he called the person who made the video a hero.

"What happened today doesn't happen all the time," Stewart told a news conference. What if there was no video?" Scott's mother stood nearby, saying, "Thank you, Lord" and "Hallelujah."

Scott may have tried to run from the officer because he owed child support, which can get someone sent to jail in South Carolina until they pay it back, Stewart said. He had four children, was engaged and had been honorably discharged from the U.S. Coast Guard. There were no violent offenses on his record, the attorney said. Stewart said the family plans to sue the police department.

Justice Department spokeswoman Dena Iverson said the Federal Bureau of Investigation will also investigate the shooting.

At the earlier news conference with the mayor, North Charleston Police Chief Eddie Driggers appeared close to tears.

"I have been around this police department a long time and all the officers on this force, the men and women, are like my children," he told reporters. "So you tell me how a father would react seeing his child do something? I'll let you answer that yourself."

Slager was denied bond at a brief first appearance hearing Tuesday. He was not accompanied by a lawyer. If convicted, he could face 30 years to life in prison. Slager also served in the United States Coast Guard and had been with North Charleston police for five years.

North Charleston is South Carolina's third-largest city and for years battled back from an economic slump caused by the closing of the Charleston Naval Base on the city's waterfront in the mid-1990s.

But now the city has bounced back in a big way, largely in part to the huge investment by Boeing, which has a 787 aircraft manufacturing plant in the city and employs about 7,500 people in South Carolina, most of them in North Charleston.

The shooting occurred as heightened scrutiny is being placed on police officer shootings, particularly those that involve white officers and unarmed black suspects. A grand jury declined to indict Ferguson, Missouri, officer Darren Wilson in the fatal shooting of Brown last August, leading to nationwide protests.

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.

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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Associated Press writers Jeffrey Collins in Columbia, S.C., and Tom Foreman Jr. in Charlotte, N.C., contributed to this report.