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Judge J. Harvie Wilkinson III Richmond, Va., Jun 26, 2009 / 03:23 am (CNA).- The Fourth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in a 6-5 decision on Wednesday upheld Virginia’s partial-birth abortion ban. In his concurring opinion, one judge wrote that the law protects the “weakest” and “most helpless” and condemned the use of the Constitution to justify “dismembering” a partly born child and “crushing” its skull.In its ruling “Richmond Medical Center v. Herring,” the court said the 2003 Virginia law does not unduly burden a woman’s legal right to terminate a pregnancy by more conventional means. It also ruled...

Partial-birth law validated - A sharply divided federal appeals court upheld Virginia's ban on partial-birth abortion Wednesday, ruling that the statute does not unduly burden a woman's right to terminate a pregnancy by more conventional means. The 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals said in a 6-5 decision that the 2003 law also makes clear the type of conduct that is banned, making it unlikely that a doctor would be prosecuted for accidentally performing the procedure, which has the medical term "intact dilation and extraction." The decision reversed a 2-1 panel ruling striking down the law, which is similar to...

A Virginia law banning a type of late-term abortion is still unconstitutional, even though a similar federal ban was upheld by the U.S. Supreme Court, a federal appeals court ruled Tuesday. The 2-1 decision by a panel of the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals affirms the same court’s 2005 ruling striking down the law. The Supreme Court had ordered the appeals court to take another look at Virginia’s statute after the ruling on the federal ban. The appeals court cited a key difference between the federal and state bans on the procedure that abortion opponents call “partial-birth abortion.” The...

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A federal appeals court ruled on Tuesday that a Virginia law banning an abortion procedure was unconstitutional because it infringed on a woman's right to end her pregnancy. The 2-1 decision by the appeals court based in Richmond, Virginia, was a victory for abortion rights advocates who had challenged the 2003 law that bans what it terms "partial birth infanticide." The U.S. Supreme Court last year upheld a federal law, the Partial Birth Abortion Ban Act, saying it prohibited only a clearly defined method. It marked the first time the court has ever upheld a nationwide ban...

Proposed Amendment Would Allow Tennessee to Ban Partial-Birth Abortion House rules must be suspended by 2/3 of members for the majority to get a fair vote. About a week ago I sent you an urgent message asking you to contact members of the Tennessee House to urge their support for SJR 127. It is the proposed constitutional amendment that will allow Tennessee to pass a Constitutionally sound ban on partial-birth abortion. I just wanted to give you a friendly reminder that there is still time to act. And, in fact, your action now may be more important than before. (I'll...

Washington, DC (LifeNews.com) -- In a Sunday interview, pro-abortion presidential candidate Barack Obama defended his opposition to a ban on partial-birth abortions. Though he wasn't in Congress at the time it voted on the ban, he said he would have supported it had it contained a health exception. However, doctors and medical groups readily acknowledge that the three-day-long abortion procedure -- involving the killing of an unborn baby halfway through the birthing process - never helps women medically. Obama also claimed pro-life advocates only brought the partial-birth abortion ban forward only to "polarize" the abortion debate. Full story at: http://www.lifenews.com/nat3896.html

Four months ago the U.S. Supreme Court upheld the federal Partial-Birth Abortion Ban Act. As I said at the time, banning this unspeakably barbaric form of abortion was a victory—albeit a small one—for the pro-life cause. It represented another step toward the end of abortion-on-demand in this country. Certainly the nation’s pro-abortion forces saw it that way as well. The near-hysterical reaction of the Center for Reproductive Rights was typical: “The U.S. Supreme Court,” it said, “effectively overturned 30 years of precedent and announced that women’s health is no longer a paramount concern . . . the Court’s decision paves...

by Steven ErteltLifeNews.com EditorAugust 31, 2007Topeka, KS (LifeNews.com) -- A top pro-life Kansas lawmaker is backing down from proposing more restrictions on late-term abortions. Instead, state Rep. Arlen Siegfreid says he wants to make sure the health department is following the law and accurately and adequately reporting how many of the abortions are done and why.Siegfried also wants to propose new legislation making the reporting requirements for abortion practitioners more thorough.Current state law requires that late-term abortions only be done to save a woman's life or to prevent “substantial and irreversible harm” to “a major bodily function.” However, Wichita abortion...

Much was made of Congress upholding the 2003 partial-birth abortion ban this past April. Pro-life groups applauded, while pro-choice groups ranted that it was chipping away at Roe v. Wade, the landmark case that made abortion legal in the United States. But, just last week, a story surfaced in the Boston Globe about how doctors are using lethal drugs to kill fetuses in the womb, so the baby is not alive when it's "delivered." Apparently, it's all legal. It allows doctors to circumvent the partial-birth abortion law, or at least the spirit of it, because the intent of the law...

How are abortion clinics protecting themselves against charges under the partial-birth abortion ban? By ensuring unborn babies are dead by injecting them first with lethal drugs before aborting them. The practice has been adopted by many abortion providers across the U.S. in the wake of the Supreme Court decision upholding the Partial-Birth Abortion Ban Act, reported the Boston Globe. The banned abortion procedure is particularly grisly. It requires the abortion doctor to partially deliver a live baby, then kill it by inserting scissors into the base of its head and using a suctioning machine to remove its brain. Other procedures,...

How are abortion clinics protecting themselves against charges under the partial-birth abortion ban? By ensuring unborn babies are dead by injecting them first with lethal drugs before aborting them. The practice has been adopted by many abortion providers across the U.S. in the wake of the Supreme Court decision upholding the Partial-Birth Abortion Ban Act, reported the Boston Globe. The banned abortion procedure is particularly grisly. It requires the abortion doctor to partially deliver a live baby, then kill it by inserting scissors into the base of its head and using a suctioning machine to remove its brain. Other procedures,...

Washington, DC (LifeNews.com) -- A new Washington Post-ABC News poll finds that a majority of Americans backed the Supreme Court's decision earlier this year to uphold a national ban on partial-birth abortions. The poll is consistent with other surveys showing Americans strongly opposing the gruesome abortion procedure. While abortion advocates frequently paint the high court's decision as out of step with the American public, the poll shows it is pro-abortion groups who don't represent most people. The poll found that 55 percent of Americans agreed with the decision upholding the national partial-birth abortion ban.The survey found that a majority of...

BATON ROUGE, Louisiana — Louisiana became the first American state to outlaw a late-term abortion procedure on Friday, when the governor approved legislation allowing doctors to be prosecuted for performing the surgery. The new law allows so-called "partial birth" abortions in only one situation: when failure to perform it would endanger the mother's life. The procedure would be a crime in all other cases, even if the pregnancy is expected to cause health problems for the mother. Democratic Gov. Kathleen Blanco signed into law criminal penalties for doctors who perform the surgery: fines of between $1,000 and $10,000, and jail...

State becomes first to ban controversial procedureBATON ROUGE, Louisiana - Louisiana became the first American state Friday to outlaw a controversial abortion procedure that involves partially removing the fetus intact from a woman's uterus, then crushing or cutting its skull to complete the abortion. The new law allows the procedure in only one situation at any time during pregnancy: when failure to perform it would endanger the mother's life. The procedure would be a crime in all other cases, even if the pregnancy is expected to cause health problems for the mother. Anti-abortion activists call the procedure "partial-birth abortion;" surgeons...

The Partial-Birth Abortion Ban Travesty By Brian Rohrbough This past month, five WND pieces have run regarding our widely-publicized open letters to Dr. James Dobson in which we document the 30-year failure of the pro-life movement. Long ago, National Right To Life devised a strategy of introducing laws to regulate child-killing, and now in order to defend those immoral tactics, many of our greatest Christian leaders have adopted the secular humanist principle of moral relativism. The bad fruit of all this is a federal judiciary stacked with Republican pro-choice judges who reject the personhood of the child, and who issue...

LifeNews.com Note: Laura Echevarria is the former Director of Media Relations and a spokesperson for the National Right to Life Committee and has been a radio announcer, freelance writer active in local politics. She is a new opinion columnist for LifeNews.com.In 1994, during a job interview with the National Right to Life Committee, the communications director described for me an abortion procedure that was so heinous and repugnant I was stunned. A couple of months later, as a new staff member, my education about the procedure called partial-birth abortion began. When I think back about all of the hard work...

BATON ROUGE, La. (AP) — The Louisiana Legislature approved a ban on a late-term abortion procedure yesterday, the first state to do so since the U.S. Supreme Court upheld a federal ban earlier this year. The House voted unanimously to approve a measure that would allow "partial-birth" abortions only when failure to perform it would endanger the mother's life. The procedure would be a crime in all other cases, including situations where the pregnancy is expected to cause health problems for the mother. The measure goes to Gov. Kathleen Babineaux Blanco, a Democrat who describes herself as pro-life but has...

I learned with sadness and chagrin that at the recent convention of National Right to Life, the organization's leadership decided to purge the Colorado Chapter because the chapter took to task the pro-life leaders who applauded Justice Kennedy's reasoning in Gonzales v. Carhart — the recent Supreme Court decision on partial birth abortion. (For my analysis of this decision, please see the article "Gardeners of Evil" at RenewAmerica.us.) Unfortunately, this news was not my first inkling of the internecine conflict the decision brought to light within the ranks of the pro-life movement. Judie Brown has been one of the critics...

NEW YORK, May 3, 2007 (LifeSiteNews.com) - Amnesty International US has adopted a new policy supporting a "right" to abortion, a move which the organization is attempting to keep secret from the public, according to reports this week carried by First Things and Consistent Life. Ryan T. Anderson, writing for First Things, reported on a buried policy statement he unearthed from the members-only, restricted-content page of AI's US website. The policy outlined AI's new position on Sexual and Reproductive Rights that "includes support for abortion." While the document claims AI would support abortion only in "particular circumstances," in effect the...

At the beginning of her dissent in the recent Partial Birth Abortion (PBA) case, Gonzalez v. Carhart, Justice Ginsburg, joined by Justices Stevens, Souter and Breyer, called the majority's decision "alarming." Though there is nothing legally alarming about this decision, Justice Ginsburg and other abortion advocates' feelings were deeply hurt by what they consider an intrusion on their rights. Yes, this decision is an intrusion on the tight grip they've had on abortion jurisprudence in America. In the past, abortionists enjoyed an unprecedented level of respect, security and even admiration that the country's highest Court did not show this...