Posted on 06/04/2007 9:07:49 PM PDT by monomaniac
Lansing, MI (LifeNews.com) -- A federal appeals court has ruled the Michigan ban on partial-birth abortions unconstitutional in a decision released Monday. The court released the decision because the language of the ban in Michigan is different from the language of the federal partial-birth abortion ban the Supreme Court recently upheld.
The U.S. 6th Circuit Court of Appeals said it was reluctant to overturn the law, but indicated that Michigan legislators could have used other bans as models, such as an Ohio ban that it had already upheld.
"We certainly are reluctant to interfere with a statute that represents the will of the elected representatives of the people of Michigan," the appeals court said.
However, the Legal Birth Definition Act was a different approach to stopping the gruesome abortions by defining birth in a way that makes the abortion procedure infanticide under state law. It was needed in part because of the Supreme Court's first decision in 2000 invalidating a Nebraska ban on partial-birth abortions because it did not contain a health exception. Federal courts struck down attempts by Michigan lawmakers to ban partial-birth abortions in 1997 and 2001, so pro-life advocates obtained the signatures of 460,000 people for a ban with this new language.
Last September, the Eastern District Court declared Michigan's statute unconstitutional, but Eric Restuccia, an assistant Michigan attorney general, told the 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals that the law blocks just one abortion procedure and should be reinstated.
She also added that Michigan Attorney General Mike Cox has told county prosecutors not to apply the law to other types of abortions.
The appeals court, in its ruling, disagreed with that analysis.
The district court ruled the ban was vague and would apply to more than one abortion method, a point ACLU attorney Brigitte Amiri told a three judge panel from the appeals court during the hearing.
"This law is an absolute ban on almost all abortions," Amiri claimed.
The Northland Family Planning abortion business filed the lawsuit against the Legal Birth Definition Act and sought an injunction preventing the measure from being enforced. The ACLU of Michigan, the pro-abortion Center for Reproductive Rights in New York, and the Planned Parenthood Federation of America joined the case. In September, U.S. District Court Judge Denise Page Hood ruled the ban can't be upheld because she claims it puts an "undue burden" on obtaining a legal abortion.
Right to Life of Michigan had supported the appeal of the judge's decision, saying Hood "overruled what more than 460,000 Michigan citizens put in place."
"The people of Michigan drained the ink from Governor Granholm's veto pen by initiating legislation to protect children who are in the process of being born, partially born children the governor chose to ignore," she added.
The state legislature gave final approval to the Legal Birth Definition Act in June 2004 after Governor Jennifer Granholm vetoed the bill.
Related web sites: Right to Life of Michigan - http://www.rtl.org Michigan Attorney General Mike Cox - http://www.michigan.gov/ag
Legal Birth Definition Act
http://www.legislature.mi.gov/(S(w4anm0qmzvygnt45evnve355))/mileg.aspx?page=getObject&objectName=mcl-Act-135-of-2004
Act 135 of 2004
An initiation of Legislation to define legal birth and the commencing of legal personhood and rights; and to provide immunity for certain acts.
Sec. 1.
This act shall be known and may be cited as the “legal birth definition act”.
Sec. 2.
The following findings are hereby made:
(a) That in Roe v Wade the United States supreme court declared that an unborn child is not a person as understood and protected by the constitution, but any born child is a legal person with full constitutional and legal rights.
(b) That in Roe v Wade the United States supreme court made no effort to define birth or place any restrictions on the states in defining when a human being is considered born for legal purposes.
(c) That, when any portion of a human being has been vaginally delivered outside his or her mother’s body, that portion of the body can only be described as born and the state has a rational basis for defining that human being as born and as a legal person.
(d) That the state has a compelling interest in protecting the life of a born person.
Sec. 3.
(1) A perinate shall be considered a legally born person for all purposes under the law.
(2) A physician or an individual performing an act, task, or function under the delegatory authority of a physician is immune from criminal, civil, or administrative liability for performing any procedure that results in injury or death of a perinate while completing the delivery of the perinate under any of the following circumstances:
(a) If the perinate is being expelled from the mother’s body as a result of a spontaneous abortion.
(b) If in that physician’s reasonable medical judgment and in compliance with the applicable standard of practice and care, the procedure was necessary in either of the following circumstances:
(i) To save the life of the mother and every reasonable effort was made to preserve the life of both the mother and the perinate.
(ii) To avert an imminent threat to the physical health of the mother, and any harm to the perinate was incidental to treating the mother and not a known or intended result of the procedure performed.
Sec. 4.
Nothing in this act shall abrogate any existing right, privilege, or protection under criminal or civil law that applies to an embryo or fetus.
Sec. 5.
As used in this act:
(a) “Anatomical part” means any portion of the anatomy of a human being that has not been severed from the body, but not including the umbilical cord or placenta.
(b) “Imminent threat to the physical health” means a physical condition that if left untreated would result in substantial and irreversible impairment of a major bodily function.
(c) “Live” means demonstrating 1 or more of the following biological functions:
(i) A detectable heartbeat.
(ii) Evidence of breathing.
(iii) Evidence of spontaneous movement.
(iv) Umbilical cord pulsation.
(d) “Perinate” means a live human being at any point after which any anatomical part of the human being is know to have passed beyond the plane of the vaginal introitus until the point of complete expulsion or extraction from the mother’s body.
(e) “Physician” means an individual licensed by the state to engage in the practice of medicine or osteopathic medicine and surgery under article 15 of the public health code, 1978 PA 368, MCL 333.16101 to 333.18838.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.