SF Partial Birth Abortion Ruling Appealed
The U.S. Justice Department appealed in a brief submitted Monday a June ruling made by a federal judge in San Francisco striking down the federal partial-birth abortion ban.
SAN FRANCISCO—The U.S. Justice Department appealed in a brief submitted Monday a June ruling made by a federal judge in San Francisco striking down the federal partial-birth abortion ban.
The appeal comes just three weeks after the department filed an appeal to a similar ruling made by a federal judge in Nebraska. Another federal judge in New York has also declared the 2003 Partial Birth Abortion Act unconstitutional but U.S. District Judge Phyllis Hamilton in San Francisco was the first.
Hamilton had declared the law constitutional for three reasons: it puts an undue burden on women seeking second-trimester abortions; it is so vague that doctors might not know when they're violating it; and it lacks a health exception as required by a 2000 U.S. Supreme Court ruling on a similar law.
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In its 82-page brief filed on Dec. 20 to the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, the Justice Department refuted all of Hamilton’s arguments.
Hamilton erred by ruling that the partial-birth abortion ban puts an undue burden on a woman’s right to a second-trimester abortion as granted through the Roe v. Wade decision, according to the brief.
The brief said that Congress "narrowly and precisely defined the proscribed 'partial-birth' procedure" to make clear that it doesn't apply to other abortion methods.
In response to Hamilton’s claim that the law is vague, the brief states that law clearly defines partial-birth abortion.
And after conducting in-depth hearings, Congress has determined that there is never a medical necessity for the use of partial-birth abortion to save a mother’s life, argued the department in its brief, attacking Hamilton’s complaint that the law lacked a health exception for the mother.
"Congress is best situated to make such findings and is entrusted by the Constitution to do so," stated the brief.
The challenge against the partial-birth abortion ban, signed by Bush in November 2003, was brought by Planned Parenthood, its California affiliate, and joined by the city of San Francisco on behalf of its hospitals.
January 19 is the deadline for the parties to submit their response briefs.
