Judge: Bush Abortion Ban Unconstitutional

[Eric(h)]

http://apnews.excite.com/article/200...D82UCC8G0.html

Judge: Bush Abortion Ban Unconstitutional
Jun 1, 2:08 PM (ET)

By DAVID KRAVETS

(SAN FRANCISCO (AP) - A federal judge Tuesday declared the Partial-Birth Abortion Ban Act unconstitutional, saying the measure infringes on a woman's right to choose.

The ruling applies to the nation's 900 or so Planned Parenthood clinics and their doctors, who perform roughly half of all abortions in the United States.

U.S. District Judge Phyllis Hamilton's ruling came in one of three lawsuits challenging the legislation President Bush signed last year.

"The act poses an undue burden on a woman's right to choose an abortion," she wrote.

Federal judges in New York and Nebraska also heard challenges to the law earlier this year but have yet to rule.

Planned Parenthood lawyer Beth Parker welcomed the ruling, saying it sends a "strong message" to Attorney General John Ashcroft and the Bush administration "that the government should not be intruding on very sensitive and private medical decisions."

Government attorneys did not immediately return calls for comment.

Bush signed the law in November, saying "a terrible form of violence has been directed against children who are inches from birth while the law looked the other way."

The law represented the first substantial federal legislation limiting a woman's right to choose an abortion, and abortion rights activists said it ran counter to three decades of Supreme Court precedent.

In the banned procedure - known as intact dilation and extraction to doctors, but called partial-birth abortion by opponents - the living fetus is partially removed from the womb, and its skull is punctured or crushed.

Justice Department attorneys argued that the procedure is inhumane, causes pain to the fetus and is never medically necessary.

Abortion proponents, however, argued that a woman's health during an abortion is more important than how the fetus is terminated, and that the banned method is often a safer solution that a conventional abortion, in which the fetus is dismembered in the womb and then removed in pieces.

The measure, which President Clinton had twice vetoed, was seen by abortion rights activists as a fundamental departure from the Supreme Court's 1973 precedent in Roe v. Wade. It shifted the debate from a woman's right to choose and focused on the plight of the fetus.

Abortion advocates said the law was the government's first step toward outlawing abortion. Violating the law carries a two-year prison term.

Late last year, Hamilton, a Clinton appointee, and federal judges in New York and Lincoln, Neb., blocked the act from being enforced pending the outcome of the court challenges. They began hearing testimony March 29.

Doctors have construed the Supreme Court's decision in Roe. v. Wade to mean they can perform abortions usually until the 24th to 28th week after conception, or until the "point of viability," when a healthy fetus is thought to be able to survive outside the womb. Generally, abortions after the "point of viability" are performed only to preserve the mother's health.

Doctors at about 900 abortion clinics practice under the Planned Parenthood umbrella, performing about half the nation's 1.3 million annual abortions.

The Nebraska and New York cases are expected to conclude within weeks. The outcomes, which may conflict with one another, will almost certainly be appealed to the Supreme Court.

The New York case was brought by the National Abortion Federation, which represents nearly half the nation's abortion providers. The Nebraska case was brought by a few abortion doctors.

The U.S. Supreme Court had overturned a Nebraska partial-birth abortion law because it did not allow the banned procedure even when a doctor believes the method is the best way to preserve the woman's health.

To get around the decision, Congress simply declared that the procedure is never medically necessary - and during weeks of testimony, doctors testifying for the government stressed that same point - claiming that there are better alternatives to the method, and that it may even be harmful to women.

Witnesses for the abortion providers, however, testified in all three trials that the banned method is often preferred and sometimes necessary to preserve a woman's health.

Congressional sponsors said the ban would outlaw only 2,200 or so abortions a year. But abortion providers testified the banned method can happen even at times when doctors try to avoid it, such as when they attempt to remove the fetus from the womb in pieces.

Because of the possibility that the fetus may partially exit a woman during an otherwise legal procedure, abortion rights advocates said the law could ban almost all second-trimester abortions, which account for about 10 percent of all abortions in the United States.

[dmb2much40]

thank god someone has their head on straight.

[ODB4LYFE]

allowing partial birth abortions is a good thing?

[dmb2much40]

Originally Posted by ODB4LYFE

allowing partial birth abortions is a good thing?

no, giving women the right to choose is.

[ODB4LYFE]

they have 3 months to choose
after that its murder

[JanelleM]

Originally Posted by dmb2much40

no, giving women the right to choose is.

[ODB4LYFE]

so the fact that the baby can survive outside the womb and can feel pain during this procedure doesnt bother you at all?

[loogs91]

jesus christ, they crush its head? and the other option is dismembering it?
i have never been so glad to be a man and not have to choose. remind me not to get anybody pregnant.

[JanelleM]

Oh I think it's awful and am not sure if I could EVER get an abortion, but I fully disagree with the government making a decision over another's body.

[BustedFairyTale]

i'm not sure how i feel about this. i believe in our right to choose but i just think that we should be able to make the decision a lot earlier on...i dunno.

[JanelleM]

Yeah it is disgusting that some people's irresponsiblities can lead to something so awful. It's not that hard to put on a condom or if god forbid something happened and you unexpectedley got pregnant, you have enough time to correct the decision so do it. Rape is another story though...

[BustedFairyTale]

Originally Posted by JanelleM

Yeah it is disgusting that some people's irresponsiblities can lead to something so awful. It's not that hard to put on a condom or if god forbid something happened and you unexpectedley got pregnant, you have enough time to correct the decision so do it. Rape is another story though...

I agree with everything you said. But even in the case of rape, don't you think that the woman should be able to make that decision to not keep the baby, within a short amount of time. I just don't get partial birth abortions. :

[JanelleM]

Originally Posted by BustedFairyTale

I agree with everything you said. But even in the case of rape, don't you think that the woman should be able to make that decision to not keep the baby, within a short amount of time. I just don't get partial birth abortions. :

Yes I would think if I was raped I would know immediately that I wouldn't want to keep a baby that resulted from it. However I can sympathize with rape victims who may be too scared to come forward at first and get it taken care of. But yes partial birth abortions could be one of the worst things I have ever heard of.

[missycor]

I'm vehemently pro-choice. I even participated in the 1992 march on Washington.

That said, as a mother of 2, I can't fathom partial-birth abortion. I felt my daughters move inside me when I was only 4 months pregnant. I have a lot of issues with 2nd trimester abortion as well, but partial-birth is even worse. My heart really goes out to any woman who has to consider such an inhuman act.

[barefoot]

The one thing that really bothers me is that the Father has no say in this whatsoever. I realize the woman is the one carrying the baby but if the father wants to raise the baby he should have the right to.

[Eric(h)]

Originally Posted by barefoot

The one thing that really bothers me is that the Father has no say in this whatsoever. I realize the woman is the one carrying the baby but if the father wants to raise the baby he should have the right to.

I think rational human beings understand the need to discuss the abortion issue as a pair of parents, not as a baby holder and the guy that impregnated her. This will allow a responsible decision on both parts to what to do with the baby. Unfortunatly irrational and down right manipulative women use pregnancy as a huge leverage for their own personal gain.

So I have no problem with the choice ultimately going to the woman, but I do have a problem with women evil enough to exploit that for whatever reason.

[barefoot]

This is one of those issues that does not seem to have a clear cut choice. I dont agree with using abortion as a method of birth control, but I believe it should be kept legal with some sort of parameters. Such as if you have more than 3 in certain amount of time you get the Birth control shot wether you want it or not. Alot of mandatory counseling for options other than abortion. Something..

[chevman]

Originally Posted by ODB4LYFE

so the fact that the baby can survive outside the womb and can feel pain during this procedure doesnt bother you at all?

It absolutely bothers me - but the salient part of this statement is that it bothers ME, whereas it is SOMEONE ELSE making the decision to have the abortion. As such, my disgust, revulsion, whatever has zero bearing on the argument at hand.

Of course, then someone will come in and say, 'But the baby can't decide for himself or herself.'

To which I would agree with you, but until that baby is born and the cord has been cut, it's existence is intertwined with the mother's in such a way that any decisions that need to be made for the baby fall smack dab in the mother's court and are about 500 million miles away from the hand of govt. Once that child is born though, the cord is cut, and they're a seperate entity, only then do they assume the full rights accorded to 'individuals' within our society. Everything up until that point is too fuzzy to defer to anyone other than the mother.

[Jake]

everyone might as well calm down on this one: it will be overturned next to immediately.

but that Judge has a great shot at making the 9th circuit now!!

[Evans]

If you are a woman who chooses to have an abortion, I hope you can live with the fact that you have murdered another human being, nay, your own flesh and blood. If you are so irresponsible as to make such a decision, then you are as much a waste of a life as your decision to murder your child is.

[cyberhound]

Originally Posted by JanelleM

Oh I think it's awful and am not sure if I could EVER get an abortion, but I fully disagree with the government making a decision over another's body.

Do you think drugs should be controlled?

[Eric(h)]

Originally Posted by Evans

If you are a woman who chooses to have an abortion, I hope you can live with the fact that you have murdered another human being, nay, your own flesh and blood. If you are so irresponsible as to make such a decision, then you are as much a waste of a life as your decision to murder your child is.

:

[kgoedman]

Originally Posted by Evans

If you are a woman who chooses to have an abortion, I hope you can live with the fact that you have murdered another human being, nay, your own flesh and blood.

They would have to live with it, therefore it's their choice.

If you are so irresponsible as to make such a decision, then you are as much a waste of a life as your decision to murder your child is.

I am not even going to touch this.

[watchtower86]

partial birth abortion is sick. i guess i can see somewhat of an argument as to why regular abortions should be legal and acceptable, but partial birth abortions are just entirely and completely wrong. you've had the baby inside you for close to nine damn months by this time. thats plenty of time to realize you dont want the baby

[JanelleM]

Originally Posted by cyberhound

Do you think drugs should be controlled?

I believe people should be responsible for their own choices.

I am not saying abortion is right, I just believe that is a decision each person has to make for themselves.

[loogs91]

Originally Posted by JanelleM

Yes I would think if I was raped I would know immediately that I wouldn't want to keep a baby that resulted from it. However I can sympathize with rape victims who may be too scared to come forward at first and get it taken care of. But yes partial birth abortions could be one of the worst things I have ever heard of.

what if you were raped by your boyfriend?

[ODB4LYFE]

do you believe the goverment should be able to enforce any laws
or is everything a matter of choice?

[JanelleM]

Originally Posted by loogs91

what if you were raped by your boyfriend?

It wouldn't make it right and obviously we wouldn't be together after that incident, so no, I wouldn't want to keep it.

[cyberhound]

Originally Posted by JanelleM

I believe people should be responsible for their own choices.

I am not saying abortion is right, I just believe that is a decision each person has to make for themselves.

So, are you saying that you think all drugs should be legal and people should be free to use them as they wish?

Should a mother be held accountable for drug use while pregnant?

[JanelleM]

Originally Posted by ODB4LYFE

do you believe the goverment should be able to enforce any laws
or is everything a matter of choice?

I know I am walking a fine line with this, but of course I believe the government should enforce laws. However when it comes to abortion I find it hard to accept the fact that the government should have anything to do with it. Drugs were also brought up and while I choose not to do drugs, they can only be controlled to a point.