St. Louis, MO - In the first ruling
of an appellate court on the merits of "partial-birth abortion"
laws, today, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit affirmed
lower court decisions finding the Arkansas, Iowa, and Nebraska
"partial-birth abortion" bans unconstitutional. In three separate
unanimous decisions, the judges found that the bans unduly burden women
seeking abortions because they would prohibit some of the safest and most
common procedures used today.
Today's decisions are likely to have wide reverberations, as the Eighth
Circuit is the first appellate level court to review the legal merits of
"partial-birth abortion" bans that are identical to the legislation
currently pending in Congress. The language of the Iowa and Nebraska laws
mirror the federal legislation. The Eighth Circuit decisions can be
appealed only to the U.S. Supreme Court, which has yet to consider the
constitutionality of "partial-birth abortion" bans.
"The court's ruling confirms that the entire campaign to ban
'partial-birth abortion' - a campaign that has consumed Congress and the
federal courts for over three years - is nothing but a fraud designed to
rob American women of their right to abortion. This is a victory, not only
for women in Arkansas, Iowa, and Nebraska, but for all American women and
for the Constitution," said Janet Benshoof, president of the Center
for Reproductive Law and Policy, which has brought 14 challenges against
such bans, including the three cases decided today.
The decision from the St. Louis, Missouri-based court focuses attention
again on Missouri, where a contentious dispute over "partial-birth
abortion" became national news. Last week, the state legislature overrode
the governor's veto of Missouri's "partial-birth abortion" ban, despite
the preponderance of court decisions finding such laws unconstitutional. A
federal court blocked the Missouri statute until a decision in the case is
reached following a March, 2000 trial. Today's decisions confirm the
unconstitutionality of that law.
Although proponents of these criminal laws argue that they would affect
only a particular abortion procedure performed late in pregnancy, judges
across the nation have determined that the statutes constitute
far-reaching bans on abortion throughout pregnancy. "Partial-birth
abortion" laws have been blocked or severely limited in 20 states.
