Virginia Abortion Ban Struck Down

[Eugene]

Source: New York Times

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/05/21/us/21abort.html?hp">Virginia Abortion Ban Struck Down

By ADAM LIPTAK
Published: May 21, 2008

A federal appeals court panel in Richmond, Va., on Tuesday
struck down a Virginia law that made it a crime for doctors
to perform what the law called “partial birth infanticide.”

In a 2-to-1 decision, a panel of the United States Court of
Appeals for the Fourth Circuit ruled that the law was more
restrictive than the federal Partial-Birth Abortion Ban Act,
which the United States Supreme Court upheld last year in
Gonzales v. Carhart.

Both laws prohibited the procedure known medically as intact
dilation and extraction. It involves removing an intact fetus
and, typically, piercing or crushing its skull. The more
common second-trimester abortion procedure, dilation and
evacuation, involves dismembering the fetus in the uterus.

The key difference between the two laws, Judge M. Blane
Michael wrote for the majority, was that the federal law
imposes criminal charges only when doctors intend at the
outset to perform the procedure, while Virginia law also
made it a crime for doctors to perform the prohibited
procedure by mistake.

-snip-

Read more: http://www.nytimes.com/2008/05/21/us/21abort.html?hp

[rosesaylavee]

1. Good.

K & R

A small victory but I'll take it. Wish the government would stay the hell out of women's health care.

[MountainLaurel]

2. Good news for the women of VA n/t