Judge Overturns Virginia Abortion Law

[kskiska]

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 a procedure generally performed in the second or third trimester in which a fetus is partially delivered before being killed.

Lawyers for the Center for Reproductive Rights, who filed the suit, argued that the law was unconstitutional because it disregarded a four-year-old Supreme Court ruling allowing the procedure when the health of the mother is threatened.

more…
http://www.lasvegassun.com/sunbin/stories/nat-gen/2004/feb/02/020203489.html

[stevedeshazer]

1. Wow

That will get the Radical Right's underwear in a wad.

[sonias]

2. Excellent ruling!

"impermissibly void for vagueness." That's absolutely correct. That doesn't even begin to address the health of the mother in this law. You can not sanction the potential loss of the mother's life in the birth process, and call yourself pro-life.

Keep your laws off my body!

Sonia

[0007]

3. Thumbs up!

[kainah]

4. the courts are doing their part lately

to try to keep hope alive....

[nolabels]

5. a "no-brain case."

insert picture of * here

[brook]

6. Good for that judge.

I don't know of a phrase that rankles me more than "partial birth abortion" - which as this judge acknowledged is a term used by the right to push emotional buttons and present ill-informed people with a "cause".

The real crime has been the politicalization of what should be a private medical decision.

[Moderator]

7. dupe

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=102&topic_id=343786