Posted on 06/03/2007 11:30:51 PM PDT by monomaniac
Madison, WI (LifeNews.com) -- Last week, Wisconsin's attorney general said the state's ban on partial-birth abortions is unenforceable. His legal opinion came even though the Supreme Court recently upheld the constitutionality of a national ban on partial-birth abortions that prohibits the grisly procedure nationwide.
Attorney General J.B. Van Hollen said Thursday that Wisconsin's law is more broad than the language in the federal ban in terms of how it defines the abortion procedure that's prohibited.
The law has already been to court and a federal appeals court considered it unconstitutional under the Supreme Court's first ruling on partial-birth abortions in 2000. Then, the high court concluded that a Nebraska ban was void because it did not include a health exception, despite the three-day-long abortion procedure never being necessary to protect a mother's health.
The ruling ultimately resulted in an injunction against the law that Van Hollen said he didn't think would be lifted.
Wisconsin Right to Life, the statewide pro-life group, said Van Hollen's opinion should prompt state legislators to put a new ban in place that state and local officials can enforce.
"Now that he has confirmed that the Wisconsin law is not constitutionally compatible with the federal partial-birth abortion ban, it is time to move forward with a new state ban on the gruesome, late-term abortion procedure," Susan Armacost, the WRTL legislative director, told LifeNews.com.
"Prosecution of partial-birth abortion cases are best handled at the state and local level. It is important that prosecutors have the tools they need to ensure that the ban on partial-birth abortions is expeditiously enforced," Armacost added.
She indicated the group would be working with Senator Scott Fitzgerald and Speaker Mike Huebsch in enacting a new state partial-birth abortion ban.
The pair requested the attorney general's opinion in the first place and Fitzgerald told AP he would put forward a new bill with language that mirrors the federal law. Huebsch said he would support a bill to do that.
Under the Wisconsin law, abortion practitioners who do a partial-birth abortion would face life in prison.
The number of abortions is at its lowest point in Wisconsin since the year after the Supreme Court overturned pro-life laws across the country in 1973. New statistics in April from the state health department show that there were 9,580 abortions done in the state in 2006, down from 9,817 in 2005.
Related web sites: Wisconsin Right to Life - http://www.wrtl.org
It may be unenforceable, as is basically true with most laws; criminals will ignore them, but it’s still a good thing to have.
Just because people are going to break laws, doesn’t mean you don’t have them.
Show me just what Mohammed brought that was new, and there you will find things only evil and inhuman, such as his command to spread by the sword the faith he preached." -Manuel II Paleologus
Nope, he's a Republican.
Show me just what Mohammed brought that was new, and there you will find things only evil and inhuman, such as his command to spread by the sword the faith he preached." -Manuel II Paleologus
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Nope, JB is on record as 100% pro-life with no exceptions. If he says the current law is unenforceable because it fails the USSC precedent's requirements, he is probably correct and we will sadly need a new bill. This will be hard to do with a 100% pro-abortion governor.
"Show me just what Mohammed brought that was new, and there you will find things only evil and inhuman, such as his command to spread by the sword the faith he preached." - Manuel II Palelologus
Nevertheless, he is not the United States A.G.
He’s the Wisconsin A.G. and he is violating the will of the People of the State of Wisconsin, if he fails to uphold Wisconsin law on this life and death issue.
SOB - Son of Baal.
Too bad “Molech” doesn’t begin with a “B”...
And they built the high places of the Ba‘al, which are in the valley of Ben-hinnom, to cause their sons and their daughters to pass through the fire Mo'lech; which I did not command them, nor did it come into my mind that they should do this abomination, to cause Judah to sin.
--Jeremiah 32:35
Sounds to me like he’s doing a kind of jury-nullification, only it’s AG nullification in this case. Law gets passed he doesn’t like? Simple, he’ll refuse to enforce it.
thanks for the info. i am glad that you guys keep us up-to-date on each of the states!!
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