Free Republic

LINCOLN -- Twenty-six Republican members of Congress asked an appeals court Thursday to reinstate the Partial Birth Abortion Ban Act, struck down by a federal judge in September. The House members sided with the U.S. Justice Department, saying in a friend-of-the-court brief that the government has a "vital and compelling interest in preventing the spread of the practice of abortion into infanticide." At issue is a federal law banning a procedure doctors call intact dilation and extraction, or D&X. Opponents call it partial-birth abortion. During the procedure, generally performed in the second trimester, a fetus is partly removed from the...

LINCOLN, Neb. (AP) _ A third federal judge ruled Wednesday that the Partial-Birth Abortion Ban Act is unconstitutional, saying it fails to include an exception when a woman's health is in danger. U.S. District Judge Richard Kopf in Lincoln said that Congress ignored the most experienced doctors in determining that the banned procedure would never be necessary _ a finding he called ``unreasonable.'' ``According to responsible medical opinion, there are times when the banned procedure is medically necessary to preserve the health of a woman and a respectful reading of the congressional record proves that point,'' Kopf wrote. ``No reasonable...

AH, REUTERS [Ramesh Ponnuru] Doug Johnson, legislative director of the National Right to Life Committee, sent out a press release on the latest partial-birth ruling. Here's an email he got in response from Todd Eastham, the North American news editor for Reuters:"What's your plan for parenting & educating all the unwanted children you people want to bring into the world? Who will pay for policing our streets & maintaining the prisons needed to contain them when you, their parents & the system fail them? Oh, sorry. All that money has been earmarked to pay off the Bush deficit. Give me...

U.S. District Judge Richard Casey became the second federal judge to call the Partial-Birth Abortion Ban Act unconstitutional.NEW YORK - A federal judge declared the Partial-Birth Abortion Ban Act unconstitutional Thursday in the second such ruling in three months -- even though he called the procedure ``gruesome, brutal, barbaric and uncivilized.'' U.S. District Judge Richard Casey -- one of three federal judges across the country to hear simultaneous challenges to the law earlier this year -- faulted the ban for not containing an exception to protect a woman's health, something the Supreme Court has made clear is required in laws...

If ever you needed convincing about the importance of this November's presidential election to the future of our republic, Thursday's decision by a federal judge in Manhattan striking down the federal ban on partial-birth abortion should certainly accommodate your needs. In his ruling in National Abortion Federation v. Ashcroft, Judge Richard Conway Casey held that the "law of the land" required him to invalidate a ban on an abortion procedure which he (and 345 members of Congress) found to be "gruesome, brutal, barbaric and uncivilized." Judge Casey's opinion demonstrates just how far off the constitutional cliff the Supreme Court...

A federal judge ruled today the federal partial-birth abortion ban is unconstitutional, striking a blow to those determined to outlaw the grisly procedure. The ruling of U.S. District Judge Richard Casey of Manhattan mirrors one in June in a separate case in San Francisco. One more challenge to the ban, which was passed by Congress and signed into law by President Bush, is still pending, in Nebraska. In his ruling, Casey called partial-birth abortion a "gruesome procedure" but claimed the ban conflicts with a 5-4 Supreme Court ruling in 2000 upholding the practice. That decision in the Steinberg v. Carhart...

Federal Judge Rules Against Partial Birth Abortion Ban Aug 26, 1:26 PM (ET) By Gail Appleson NEW YORK (Reuters) - A federal judge on Thursday ruled against the government's ban on so-called partial birth abortions, saying the measure signed into law last year by President Bush was unconstitutional. The ruling by U.S. District Judge Richard Casey of Manhattan followed a similar decision by a San Francisco judge in June that barred the U.S. Justice Department from enforcing the ban. A Justice Department spokesman had no immediate comment on the New York ruling. Earlier this month, the department said it would...

NEW YORK - A federal judge declared the Partial-Birth Abortion Ban Act unconstitutional Thursday in the second such ruling in three months — even though he called the procedure "gruesome, brutal, barbaric and uncivilized." U.S. District Judge Richard C. Casey — one of three federal judges across the country to hear simultaneous challenges to the law earlier this year — faulted the ban for not containing an exception to protect a woman's health, something the Supreme Court has made clear is required in laws prohibiting particular types of abortion. The law, signed last November, banned a procedure known to doctors...

Bill Number: S 3 Date: 10/21/2003 Roll Call Number: 402 Vote to pass a bill banning a medical procedure, which is commonly known as "partial-birth" abortion. The procedure would be allowed only in cases in which a woman's life is in danger, not for cases where a woman's health is in danger. Senator John Forbes Kerry voted NO.

A doctor who testified yesterday in one of three simultaneous trials challenging the congressional ban on partial birth abortions proclaimed he would probably continue performing the prohibited procedure and risk a jail sentence rather than obey the ban. Dr. William Fitzhugh of Richmond, Va., said during the Nebraska trial that began Monday, "I'd have to take my chances," according to an Associated Press report. As WorldNetDaily reported last week, opponents of the government's ban on partial birth abortion are challenging the legislation in New York, Nebraska and San Francisco. All three trials began Monday. Late last year, U.S. District Judge...

NEW YORK -- A doctor testified Tuesday that the delivery of a largely intact fetus in a procedure threatened by a new law is sometimes preferred by women who are grieving the loss of a pregnancy and want to properly bury the fetus. Amos Grunebaum, a specialist in maternal fetal medicine at New York Hospital, testified on the second day of simultaneous trials in New York, San Francisco and Lincoln, Neb., on the constitutionality of the Partial-Birth Abortion Ban Act. Abortion rights advocates say the law signed by President Bush in November will endanger almost all second trimester abortions or...

<p>NEW YORK (AP) -- At closely watched abortion trials across the country Tuesday, one doctor said he will risk breaking a new law banning some abortions and another said he fears he will be prosecuted for doing a form of abortion "I consider safer."</p>

A lawyer representing physicians who conduct abortions and civil liberties groups charged yesterday that the Partial-Birth Abortion Ban Act should be set aside because it, "unconstitutionally compromises a woman's right to reproductive choice." The case, being heard as a bench trial before Manhattan U.S. District Court Judge Richard Casey, was brought by a group of seven physicians who perform abortions, the National Abortion Federation, along with the American Civil Liberties Union and the New York Civil Liberties Union. Challenges to the ban were also heard yesterday in federal courts in San Francisco and Omaha, Nebraska. Although the ban was signed...

<p>John Ashcroft wants to know the science behind the "protecting the life of the mother."</p> <p>Proponents of the gruesome procedure known as partial-birth abortion like to argue that it is medically necessary. If so, you'd think they'd be eager to present evidence proving their case.</p>

February 12, 2004 Justice Dept. Demands Abortion Records By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS Filed at 11:23 p.m. ET NEW YORK (AP) -- Under fire from abortion-rights groups, Attorney General John Ashcroft insisted Thursday that doctor-patient privacy is not threatened by a government attempt to subpoena medical records in a lawsuit over the Partial-Birth Abortion Ban Act. At stake are records documenting certain late-term abortions performed by doctors who have joined in a legal challenge of the disputed ban. President Bush signed the act into law last year. Critics of the subpoenas accuse the Justice Department of trying to intimidate doctors and...

<p>NEW YORK (AP) - Under fire from abortion-rights groups, Attorney General John Ashcroft insisted Thursday that doctor-patient privacy is not threatened by a government attempt to subpoena medical records in a lawsuit over the Partial-Birth Abortion Ban Act.</p> <p>At stake are records documenting certain late-term abortions performed by doctors who have joined in a legal challenge of the disputed ban. President Bush signed the act into law last year.</p>

WASHINGTON - The Justice Department is demanding that at least six hospitals in New York City, Philadelphia and elsewhere turn over hundreds of patient medical records on certain abortions performed there.Lawyers for the Justice Department said that they need the records, but not the patients' names, to defend the government against a lawsuit seeking to overturn a law passed by Congress in November that outlawed what opponents call partial-birth abortions.The lawsuit was brought by a group of doctors at hospitals nationwide who say the law would ban them from performing medically needed abortions. The Justice Department wants to examine the...

Washington, DC (LifeNews.com) -- The Bush administration is actively seeking patient records on partial-birth abortions in order to defend the federal ban on the abortion procedure. Abortion advocates have filed three lawsuits seeking to overturn the legislation and courts have set a late March trial date to start the proceedings. The Department of Justice has subpoenaed patient records from seven abortion practitioners and at least five hospitals -- including Northwestern Memorial Hospital in Chicago and the University of Michigan medical center. The hospitals say the patient information should be kept confidential. A Chicago judge quashed the subpoena preventing Northwestern from...

<p>On Monday, U.S. District Judge Richard Williams struck down Virginia's ban on . Not content with merely overturning state law arbitrarily, he used his condescending ruling to denigrate pro-lifers. The judge declared that his decision was an example of a "no brain case" because the abortion restriction was "impermissibly void for vagueness." We disagree with the specifics of his ruling and with the peremptory manner in which this appointed judge cavalierly nullified a law supported by a state's democratically elected representatives.</p>

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...