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Federal Court of Appeals declares unconstitutional three states’
abortion laws
Women and their families and physicians in Arkansas,
Iowa and Nebraska are today protected from bad laws and bad public policy
Planned Parenthood applauds the 8th circuit court of
appeals
Statement by Gloria Feldt, President
Planned Parenthood Federation
of America
September 24,
1999
Washington, DC — Women, their families and
physicians in Arkansas, Iowa and Nebraska won an important legal victory
today with a federal circuit ruling that declared so-called
"partial birth abortion" laws unconstitutional.
Judges of the
federal 8th circuit court of appeals in St. Louis delivered the
three-state decision that knocked down anti-choice legislation undermined
federal law and the legal protections of abortion rights.
"In
today’s federal appeals court ruling, three different state laws were
appropriately undone," said Planned Parenthood Federation of America
attorney Eve Gartner, who played a leading role in the case of Planned
Parenthood of Greater Iowa v. Miller.
Although 30 states have
enacted similar laws since 1995, they have been challenged in 21 states
and enjoined in whole or part in 20 states, said Gartner.
Today's
ruling demonstrates, once again, that the rhetoric used by anti-choice
legislators to push state laws limiting the so-called "partial birth"
abortion procedure simply does not stand up in the courts.
The
good news for women and their families in the states of Arkansas, Iowa,
and is that the dangerous legislation and the underlying attempt to ban
abortions in these three states has failed.
The losers are those
who do not believe in a woman’s constitutionally guaranteed reproductive
rights. The winners are the women and their families who face the decision
to terminate a
pregnancy, as well as the physicians and the clergy who work with
them.
The abortion bans defeated today in three states would have
been a dangerous intrusion of government into the doctor-patient
relationship.
What does this latest victory portend for the newest
battle being staged in Missouri?
This week a district court judge
correctly ruled to temporarily stop the so-called "Infant
Protection Act," an atavistic law vetoed by Governor Mel Carnahnan but
overridden by the Missouri legislators last week.
One can only hope
the people of Missouri and the anti-choice legislators who led the
successful override last week will reconsider this attempt to criminalize
a woman and her physician and to ban virtually all abortions in the state
of Missouri.
Planned Parenthood understands that women and their
families must be able to make decisions about their health care, including
abortion. We know that doctors must be able to use their best judgment to
determine the most appropriate medical course for each patient.
That none of the 20 abortion procedure bans enjoined by the courts
make any exception to preserve a woman’s health stands as a stark reminder
that anti-choice sponsors would sacrifice women’s well-being to accomplish
their political agenda.
That’s why, in state after state, Planned
Parenthood and other women’s health care providers have gone to court to
challenge state laws similar to the laws that failed today.
The
chambers of justice, unlike the halls of Congress and the halls of
statehouses, have allowed reality to rise above the rhetoric that has
dominated the political debate.
Judges take the time to listen
carefully to medical experts and legal authorities. And, with but one
exception, they are finding that these bans are invalid.
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