BY HILDA CUZCO
In a blow to women's right to choose to have an
abortion, a federal court in Wisconsin has upheld a law that
bans late-term abortion.
Known medically as intact dilation and extraction, or "D&E," which right-wing opponents demagogically label "partial-birth" abortion, 24 state governments have adopted laws banning the procedure and many others are debating it.
U.S. Congress approved similar bills twice in 1996 and 1997. President William Clinton vetoed it both times, saying he would have signed the legislation if it had included an exception for cases in which pregnancy seriously threatened a woman's health. The bills contained the exemption to this procedure only if the woman's life was in danger.
The law in Wisconsin, signed by Gov. Thomas Thompson, went into effect May 14. It bans late-term abortions, which it describes as a procedure that "causes the death of the partially delivered child with the intent to kill the child." According to the text of the law, a "child" is defined as a "human being since its time of fertilization until it is completely delivered from a pregnant woman."
Planned Parenthood of America and the Center for Reproductive Law and Policy in Wisconsin challenged the law as unconstitutional on behalf of six doctors and several clinics, asking that a federal judge block it. But U.S. district judge John Shabaz ruled in favor of the law until further discussion on its constitutionality.
Citing fear that the law's language could be applied broadly to all kinds of abortions, including those performed early in pregnancy, Wisconsin doctors and virtually all abortion clinics across Wisconsin shut down May 14.
Bonnie Jones, an attorney for the Center for Reproductive Law and Policy, said she advised halting abortions to prevent prosecution and the penalty under the new legislation - life imprisonment. Dennis Christensen, one of the doctors involved in the lawsuit, said he canceled 22 appointments the day the law went into effect, and 24 the day before. Many advocates of women's rights saw the Wisconsin ban as a precedent that will be used to seek further restrictions on the right to abortion.
Right-wing opponents of a woman's right to choose welcomed the ruling against late-term abortion. Susan Armacost, legislative director for Wisconsin Right to Life, called the ruling "wonderful." The proposal to ban late-term abortions was first introduced in Congress in 1993 by Republican congressman Charles Canady of Florida, and was supported by Democrats such as Sen. Patrick Moynihan, who called the procedure "close to infanticide."
A report released in January by the National Abortion and Reproductive Rights Action League stated that last year alone 31 states enacted 55 measures that curbed access to abortion almost four times as many as the restrictive laws enacted by 9 states in 1996. Restrictions include required parental notification, waiting periods, counseling against abortion, and prohibitions against using public money for the procedure.
The report also indicates that since the legalization of abortion in 1973, the number of abortions peaked in 1990 at 1.4 million, but in 1995 figures dropped 15 percent, the last year the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention had figures.