Appeals Court Voids Ban on 'Partial Birth' Abortions

[dogday]

A federal appeals court yesterday upheld a ruling by a lower court judge striking down the Partial-Birth Abortion Ban Act, which bars a method of abortion generally used after the first trimester.

The decision, by a three-judge panel of the United States Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit, in St. Louis, was the first that an appeals court has issued on the ban, which Congress approved in November 2003 with the strong backing of President Bush.

The ruling, written by Judge Kermit Edward Bye and joined by Judges James B. Loken and George G. Fagg, found the law unconstitutional because, while making an exception to the ban to protect the life of a pregnant woman, it made no such exception to preserve her health.

That an appeals court has now ruled on the matter moves the law one step closer to a likely review by the Supreme Court, perhaps in the coming term. In a rare point of agreement between adversaries in the abortion debate, advocates on both sides said the stakes had now been raised even further in Mr. Bush's selection of a nominee to succeed Justice Sandra Day O'Connor.

http://www.nytimes.com/2005/07/09/national/09abort.html

[liberaliraqvet26]

1. what the hell is "partial-birth" anyway

it seems to me to be right wing propaganda, we should not use this term, it is late term

[FreedomAngel82]

2. I think it is

I remember watching on the CSPAN archives a rally of Howard Dean's that took place in early 2004. He was talking to a nurse and this nurse asked him what he thought of Partial birth ban. He, as a doctor, said it was nonsense and used by the rightwing to appear pro-life. In his state of Vermont that year not ONE woman used it.

[panzerfaust]

3. Yes, terms are important

And this one was made up by the Rightwing, for its shock/disgust value.

If you allow your opponents to define both themselves and you, you are well on your way to losing.

Might want to look up what “Bolshevik” actually meant in Russian - and recall that, when "Bolshevik" was first used, they were not.