Judge overturns Virginia 'partial-birth' abortion law

cbsnewyork.com/ ^ | 02/02/04 | DAVID E. LEIVA

[KQQL]

RICHMOND, Va. (AP) A federal judge struck down Virginia's ban on a type of late-term abortion Monday, saying the law violated privacy rights and failed to make an exception for the health of the woman.

U.S. District Judge Richard L. Williams called the ban on what opponents call partial-birth abortion ``impermissibly void for vagueness.''

The judge blocked the law last July, the day it went into effect, calling it a ``no-brain case.'' He also has challenged the use of the term ``partial birth infanticide'' by the law's backers, saying it was an attempt to alarm the public.

Virginia's law outlawed a procedure generally performed in the second or third trimester in which a fetus is partially delivered before being killed.

Lawyers for the Center for Reproductive Rights, who filed the suit, argued that the law was unconstitutional because it disregarded a four-year-old Supreme Court ruling allowing the procedure when the health of the mother is threatened.

The state law contained no such health exception.

The suit alleged that the ``vaguely defined'' ban could subject doctors to criminal prosecution even for safely performing a more common type of second-trimester abortion known as ``dilation and evacuation,'' as well as obstetrical procedures that help women suffering miscarriages.

The law's backers claimed it specifically targeted procedures that take place once the fetus has emerged from the birth canal.

About 30 states have enacted versions of partial birth abortion bans, but in many cases they have been overturned in court. The limited federal ban is being challenged in Nebraska, New York and California.

[KQQL]

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[KantianBurke]

Who appointed this pig?

[DameAutour]

How will any partial birth abortion ban stand as long as a "health exception" is not included? But if the "health exception" is included, then of course that is no ban at all.

When doctors testify that this abortion procedure is never needed for health reasons, how can these judges still claim a "health exception" must be included?

I fear the federal ban won't stand either, for the same reason. Enforcement has already been blocked by a "judge".

It is paramount that Roe V. Wade and Doe V. Bolton be overturned and the power returned to the states, who can then ban abortion all the want. As it stands, millions of children will continue to be slaughtered. This is unconscionable and it seems like nothing can be done about.

[KQQL]

JEAN Kerry'S FRIENDS

[King Black Robe]

He also has challenged the use of the term ``partial birth infanticide'' by the law's backers, saying it was an attempt to alarm the public.

Oh, hogwash! Yet this is not alarming the public? "The suit alleged that the ``vaguely defined'' ban could subject doctors to criminal prosecution even for safely performing a more common type of second-trimester abortion known as ``dilation and evacuation,'' as well as obstetrical procedures that help women suffering miscarriages.

[international american]

Guess:)

[international american]

"saying the law violated privacy rights "

Guess that little boy or girl ain't entitled to privacy.........

[George W. Bush]

This makes it clear enough that the so-called partial-birth abortion ban only address one kind of late term abortion.

I get the feeling sometimes that pro-lifers aren't aware of how limited the ban actually is.

[Daphne]

Sure, there should be something in there about the mother's health, but the term 'the mother's life in danger' can't be 'vague' either. Otherwise everyone who wants to give their baby the needle could use it.

doesn't matter what they have to do. The murder has to stop, whether the pro-'death'ers want it to or not.

[patton]

Claire Wolfe is right.

[observer5]

"The judge blocked the law last July, the day it went into effect, calling it a ``no-brain case.'

As in SUCKED OUT BABY BRAIN?

What a sick ass*ole this guy is!

[observer5]

"allowing the procedure when the health of the mother is threatened."

BS, if the baby is already half out of the mother, how can it be a health risk to the mother. You mena to say it is safer for the mother to have some butcher go into her ... with a sharp tool and have the baby brain sucked out?

These people are worst than HITLER!

[freekitty]

There sure are a lot of sickos out there and this judge appears to be one.

[PattonReincarnated]

U.S. District Judge Richard L. Williams is one sick SOB. It is should be noted that John F'ing Kerry is a strong supporter of partial birth abortion - yes another sick SOB.

[Henchman]

Can't we impeach these murderous Nazi judges? He is right, he has no brain and easily made the decision without thought.

[Dionysius]

What's that diabolical laugh you hear? It's just another federal judge losing his immortal soul!

[Kuksool]

The power of liberal judges need to be aborted.

[Lancey Howard]

The judge blocked the law last July, the day it went into effect, calling it a ``no-brain case.''

Boy, is that ever an ironic comment.
Because partial birth abortion involves evacuating the nearly-born baby's skull of its brain matter. See, when the baby is all born except for the top of her little head, the surgical scissors are screwed into the base of the skull and the baby's brains are sucked out so that the baby's skull can be collapsed and a dead baby can be born extracted.

(Democrats love this stuff - - lots of money in it.)

So when this scumbag judge, Richard L. Williams, calls it a ``no-brain case'', he is amusing himself with his clever wit and having himself a real knee-slapping laugh at the expense of opponents of this gruesome procedure. Williams is basically sneering that the joke is on them.

This Williams is one sick dog.

[Maeve]

Pro-Life OUTRAGE