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Judge Says Abortion-Ban Challenge Must B

Posted by Jeff (Guest) jeff@attoz.com - Thursday, March 18 2004, 11:21:57 (EST) from 69.14.56.182 - d14-69-182-56.try.wideopenwest.com Commercial - Windows XP - Netscape Website: Website title:

Judge Says Abortion-Ban Challenge Must Be Tried Wed Mar 17, 6:33 PM ET Add U.S. National - Reuters to My Yahoo! By Gail Appleson NEW YORK (Reuters) - A federal judge on Wednesday denied a request by abortion providers to throw out a law banning a type of late-term abortion and ruled a trial is needed to determine whether the measure is unconstitutional. In his order, U.S. District Judge Richard Casey denied a motion by the National Abortion Federation (news - web sites) to throw out the law prior to a trial scheduled to begin on March 29 in Manhattan federal court. The federation had sought a ruling on the ban before the expected four-week trial, but Casey said a trial was needed to resolve a dispute over whether the abortion procedure, which critics call a "partial-birth" abortion, is ever medically necessary to protect a woman's health. The NAF, which is the professional association of abortion providers in the United States and Canada, sued U.S. Attorney General John Ashcroft (news - web sites) last year to stop enforcement of the law. President Bush (news - web sites) signed the measure on November 5, 2003. The group argued that the ban was unconstitutional because it lacks an exception that would permit such abortions if the procedure is necessary to protect a woman's health. In 2000, the U.S. Supreme Court (news - web sites) declared unconstitutional a Nebraska law banning the late-term abortions, based in part on the fact that the statute lacked a woman's-health exception. One day after Bush signed the federal law, Casey and two other judges in California and Nebraska temporarily blocked the government from prosecuting almost all doctors for performing the abortion procedure. However, Casey said a trial is needed to determine the facts in the case. He said that while the Supreme Court ruling calls for a maternal health exception if "a significant body of medical opinion believes a procedure brings with it greater safety advantages," he must also consider congressional findings made after eight years of hearings. He said Congress concluded that "partial-birth abortion is never necessary to preserve the health of a woman." If it withstands the legal challenges, the ban would constitute the first federal limit on a type of abortion since the 1973 Roe v. Wade (news - web sites) Supreme Court ruling backing the right to an abortion. Under the bill, a doctor could face up to two years in prison as well as civil lawsuits for performing the banned procedure, defined as intentionally killing a fetus that has been partially delivered. --------------------- - BACK TO INDEX - REPLY - QUOTE - EDIT - DELETE -

The full topic: Judge Says Abortion-Ban Challenge Must B Jeff - Thursday, March 18 2004, 11:21:57 (EST) Judge Says Abortion-Ban Challenge Must B parhad - 03/18 14:57

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