Copyright 1999 St. Louis Post-Dispatch, Inc.
St.
Louis Post-Dispatch
October 28, 1999, Thursday, FIVE STAR LIFT
EDITION
SECTION: NEWS, Pg. A1
LENGTH: 689 words
HEADLINE:
ABORTION ACTIVISTS DISAGREE ON RULING'S IMPACT;
BOTH SIDES SAY HIGH COURT
LIKELY WILL DECIDE ISSUE
BYLINE: Bill Bell Jr.;
Post-Dispatch Jefferson City Bureau
DATELINE: JEFFERSON
CITY
BODY:
State anti-abortion leaders say
a federal appeals court's decision backing "partial-birth
abortion" bans elsewhere is good news for their court fight for a
Missouri ban.
Abortion-rights leaders say the ruling won't affect the
Missouri case because the laws elsewhere that were upheld are far different.
Both sides agree that the latest court action will likely push the U.S.
Supreme Court to take up the issue.
By a 5-4 vote Tuesday, the 7th U.S.
Circuit Court of Appeals in Chicago upheld partial-birth
abortion bans in Illinois and Wisconsin. Neither law had exceptions to
protect the health of the mother and allowed the procedure -- in which the fetus
is partially delivered and its skull crushed -- only if the woman's life were at
risk. Missouri's law, which has been blocked by a federal court order until
March, also does not have a health exception. The Supreme Court has mandated
health exceptions in earlier rulings.
Hope Clinic for Women in Granite
City, which filed the initial Illinois suit, said Tuesday's ruling won't affect
its abortion services. The American Civil Liberties Union of Illinois, which
represents the clinic, will seek a court order preventing the Illinois law from
being enforced while the ACLU seeks an appeal. Spokesman Ed Yohnka said the
group will first file with the 7th Circuit, and then with the Supreme Court.
Tuesday's appeals court ruling contrasts with a September decision by
the 8th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in St. Louis. That court threw out similar
bans in Nebraska, Arkansas and Iowa. It said the bans were vague and appeared to
also bar other kinds of abortions. Those bans also didn't include health
exceptions.
But the 7th Circuit majority said the Illinois and Wisconsin
laws don't need health exceptions because the procedure "is not the best or the
safest option in any articulable category of situation."
The court left
it up to lower courts to clarify and limit the scopes of the bans in both
states.
Both appeals court rulings dealt with laws banning a procedure
called "dilation and extraction," a mid- and late-term abortion procedure that
abortion-rights activists say is rarely performed. There is no evidence it has
been performed in Missouri.
Missouri's law does not refer to
"partial-birth abortion," but instead, approaches the issue by banning
"infanticide." The bill, called the Infant's Protection Act, became law in
September when the state Legislature overrode Gov. Mel Carnahan's veto.
Jordan Cherrick, a St. Louis attorney who is defending the Missouri law
in court, said Tuesday's opinion helps his case - even though Missouri is within
the 8th Circuit's jurisdiction.
Cherrick praised the 7th Circuit for
ruling "that as long as traditional abortions are permitted, partial-birth
abortion bans do not violate any person's constitutional rights."
Sam
Lee, head of the anti-abortion group Campaign Life Missouri, said, "Bottom line
is that it's a very helpful decision." The appeals court's recommendation that
state courts handle the details is welcomed, he said, because the Missouri
Supreme Court is seen as more amenable to abortion restrictions.
Paula
Gianino, executive director of Planned Parenthood in the St. Louis region,
disagrees with Cherrick's analysis. She predicts no impact on the Missouri court
fight. Critics say the Missouri statute is unconstitutional and so broadly
written it bans abortions even in the first trimester.
What Tuesday's
ruling does demonstrate, Gianino said, "is a continuous, relentless national
strategy to go from state to state to state writing laws aimed at making all
abortions illegal."
Sally Burgess, executive director of the Hope
Clinic, said Tuesday's ruling involves a procedure that the clinic doesn't
perform.
But the ACLU's Yohnka said his group believes the Illinois law
also bans the most common type of abortions performed in the second trimester of
pregnancy. That procedure, dilation and evacuation, is performed at Hope.
Burgess said, "We really don't believe state Legislatures ought to be
making medical decisions. That's the road we're headed down."
LOAD-DATE: October 28, 1999 
