The Nebraska ruling by Judge Richard Kopf was the earliest, coming less than an hour after Bush’s signing ceremony on November 5. It was also the narrowest, applying only to four doctors who filed the lawsuit. Kopf based it on a 2000 decision by the Supreme Court, which struck down a similar Nebraska state law on the grounds that it did not contain an exception for protecting the health of the mother. He rebuffed the congressional finding that the exception was not necessary, stating that the “Supreme Court has found otherwise.”

Argued on the same precedents, the New York and San Francisco decisions, announced over the following couple of days, had a much broader application. The New York ruling followed a lawsuit by the National Abortion Federation, which operates clinics in almost every state and performs about half the abortions done nationwide. Federation president Vicki Saporta stated that the injunction was “wonderful news. It was very important that this bill be enjoined.”

In anticipation of the lawsuits that produced the injunction and helped lay the basis for new legal challenges, Bush told participants in the signing ceremony that his administration would “vigorously defend this law against any who would try to overturn it in the courts.”

The ceremony, which was attended by some 400 people, took on the air of an anti-abortion rights rally. A few dozen people gathered outside in a protest organized by the National Organization for Women, holding signs that read, “Keep Abortion Safe and Legal!”

Bush was repeatedly interrupted with applause and cheers as he introduced the main sponsors of the bill, its congressional supporters, members of his administration, and at least one Catholic church official. He also acknowledged the presence of Illinois Rep. Henry Hyde, the sponsor of the 1976 amendment bearing his name that barred the use of Medicaid funds for abortions.

The newly signed law is the first ban of a specific abortion procedure since the right to abortion was codified in the 1973 Supreme Court Roe v. Wade ruling. Opponents of abortion rights emotively and inaccurately refer to the rarely used procedure as “partial birth abortion.” Echoing their terminology at the signing, Bush said: “For years, a terrible form of violence has been directed against children who are inches from birth…it involves the partial delivery of a live boy or girl, and a sudden, violent end of that life.”

Without citing sources Bush applauded Congress for declaring that the procedure is widely regarded among doctors as “unnecessary, harmful to the mother and a violation of medical ethics.” The law provides for fines and imprisonment up to two years for doctors who perform the procedure.

The correct medical term for the procedure is intact dilation and evacuation, or D&X for short. It is usually performed when the fetus is dead, or so malformed that it will never gain consciousness and will die shortly after delivery. The procedure is also employed when the pregnancy places the woman’s life or health in severe danger.

While the new law provides for the procedure to be performed when the woman’s life is at stake, it provides no exception for the protection of her health. In 1996 and 1997 former president William Clinton vetoed similar bills for the same deficiency.

Signaling the administration’s intent to use the law to attack abortion rights, Attorney General John Ashcroft has assigned its enforcement to the Justice Department’s civil rights division. Department officials said the decision is aimed at broadening the civil rights protection of fetuses.

At least three pieces of legislation along these lines are at various stages of advancement through Congress. The Unborn Victims of Violence Act would classify a fetus as a “crime victim” if injured or killed during commission of a federal offense. The Abortion Non-Discrimination Act would allow a broad range of health-care organizations and providers to refuse to pay, perform, or provide referrals for abortions. Finally, the Child Custody Protection Act would make it a crime for any person other than a parent to transport a minor across a state line to get an abortion, where it circumvents a state law requiring parental notification.
 
 
Related articles:
Abortion is a woman’s right!  
 
 
Front page (for this issue) | Home | Text-version home