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.

[Maeve]

Pro-Life OUTRAGE

[altair]

Hitler was an amateur compared to what the abortion industry has done since Roe -vs- Wade.

[Republican Wildcat]

Sick.

[passionfruit]

I read that either the AMA or JAMA has said that there is no benefit to the mother to perform this procedure. Therefore the "Health of the mother" exception argument is moot.

Look at it this way. The baby is delivered, except the head, including the largest parts, the hips and shoulders. Once those are delivered the mother would actually have to stop pushing, or the head would be delivered almost effortlessly after the rest of the body

The mother would have to stop pushing long enough for the Dr. to stab the base of the baby's skull and suck out the brains. That in itself would take a long amount of time, and frankly, I doubt most women could do it.

In my own two deliveries, the Dr. told me to stop pushing so he could do the episiotomies. There was no way I could stop. The urge to push was too strong. Partial birth abortion is done for one reason only. To kill the baby.

[dagnabbit]

Agreed. A sad excuse for a person, much less a federal judge.

[NYer]

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.

From Priests For Life

The Court argued, furthermore, that a "health reason" for the Partial-birth abortion procedure was present if, in the judgment of the physician, it was safer than alternative procedures. One of the problems with this line of argument is that one can identify many circumstances in which it is safer for the mother to deliver the child normally than to have a partial-birth abortion. Normal delivery excludes the dangers that arise from inverting the position of the child, and from inserting surgical instruments into the birth canal. Why not argue, therefore, that "live-birth abortion" should be legal as a safer alternative to partial-birth abortion. People like Jill Stanek have exposed this practice, in which children marked for abortion are born alive and then killed. This is exactly where the logic of partial-birth abortion leads.

THE PARTIAL BIRTH PROCEDURE

A common abortion procedure performed in the second trimester is Dilatation and Evacuation (D & E), in which the child is dismembered with forceps. Standard abortion textbooks such as Warren Hern's Abortion Practice describe the procedure in detail.

The D&E Procedure

Catholic Ping - let me know if you want on/off this list

[NYer]

Ping!

[Alamo-Girl]

Thanks for the ping!

[RobbyS]

Let's face it. The Court is asserting that the physician may choose arbitrarily whatever means is required to achieve the result that the mother wants.

[RobbyS]

Let's face it. The Court is asserting that the physician may choose arbitrarily whatever means is required to achieve the result that the mother wants.

[RobbyS]

Sorry aboiut the duplex

[Salvation]

Hope this gets appealed.

[Maeve]

It must be appealed.

[BenR2]

Black-robed tyrant bump.

[Constantine XIII]

Welcome to the presidency of of John F. Kerry.

[Travis McGee]

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

Grisly turn of phrase by Judge Mengele.

[patton]

Well put.

[maica]

Also regarding the "health of the mother" canard --

The 'mother' has to undergo a period of preparation like that called induction for a birth that is being stimulated by medication.

A woman in desperate health is being asked to delay her treatment so that powerful drugs can be administered and take effect.

Yet live premature babies are born all the time if a mother is truly in desperate health, and from the trimesters in question with partial-birth abortion the survival rates are very high these days.

Two reasons why women or their doctors choose the partial-birth procedure both involve HEALTHY mothers.

First, the baby is found on ultrasound to have a defect, which either might NOT be deadly if the baby is delivered naturally, or the mother will experience 'anguish' if she is 'forced' to carry the baby to term, and then deliver a dead baby.

The second reason for the choice is to AVOID a Caesarean section (which would be the decision for a truly ill mother) so a live baby does not result, AND the otherwise healthy woman does not have to recuperate from a surgical procedure.

[maica]

Welcome to the presidency of of John F. Kerry.
****

Fundamentalist Christians who call talkshows and declare that they cannot vote for President Bush this time around, should remember this fight against legalized murder next November.

If we cannot reverse the power of NARALs Kate Michelman and her pet judges, all Americans will suffer.