Virginia abortion law unconstitutional...

[cynatnite]

A federal appeals court in Richmond again declared Virginia's abortion law unconstitutional yesterday, saying it is more restrictive than the federal ban on late-term abortion that the U.S. Supreme Court approved last year.

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the 4th Circuit has never allowed Virginia's Partial Birth Infanticide Act of 2003 to take effect, but the Supreme Court ordered it last year to reexamine the law in light of the high court's decision upholding the federal ban.

Since that April 2007 ruling, federal appeals courts have struck down abortion laws in Michigan and Virginia, saying they go beyond what the Supreme Court approved.

In Richmond, the three-judge panel that overturned the law in 2005 repeated its 2 to 1 decision yesterday, saying that the only way doctors could be certain they would not be prosecuted under the law would be to stop performing abortions.

"The Virginia Act imposes an undue burden upon a woman's right to choose a previability second trimester abortion," Judge M. Blane Michael wrote. He was joined by Judge Diana Gribbon Motz.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/story/2008/05/20/ST2008052002114.html

[GodlessBiker]

1. Wow. For the Fourth Circuit to say this, the law must have been really bad.

[Neurotica]

2. The law's author, GOP Senate candidate Bob Marshall, says this decision is

"grotesque." He goes on to say that he authored the law to "prevent the killing of human children in the process of birth."

Here's the press release:

http://bobmarshall2008.com/press-releases/marshall-blasts-infanticide-court-ruling.html

Please note that Marshall once said that morning after pills would turn young women into "chemical love canals." This was in a General Assembly session.