President Bush’s legislation that bans partial-birth abortions was put on hold a day after Bush signed the bill last week. Two federal judges, Richard C. Casey of New York, and Phyllis J. Hamilton of California, said the bill is unconstitutional by providing no exemptions for a woman’s health.
Douglas Johnson, spokesperson for the National Right to Life Committee said the judges’ orders, “severely impede the government’s ability to protect these premature infants.”
Despite the appeals from federal judges, the Justice Department made a statement saying they will continue to move forward with their plans of barring partial abortion and, “will continue to strongly defend the law prohibiting partial birth abortions using every resource necessary.?
Partial-birth abortion is when a fetus is partially delivered, then given a lethal injection into the skull. Experts who oppose this ban say the new law is overly broad, and has no exemptions for women’s health. They believe the law is too vague, and could outlaw safe and conventional abortion procedures. Abortion-rights advocates believe this law is the first step to reversing the 1973 Roe v. Wade Supreme Court decision, a verdict that made it legal for woman to have abortions.
Sen. John Kerry said, “There’s no such thing as a ‘partial birth.’ It is a late-term abortion. They’ve done a very effective job of giving people a sense of fear about it, and it’s part of their assault on the rights of women in America. There’s nothing partial, may I say, about their effort to undo Roe v. Wade.”
In his statement regarding the bill last week, President Bush said, “This is very important legislation that will end an abhorrent practice and continue to build a culture of life in America.”
Bush’s feelings were echoed by State Sen. Ted House, who believes that this legislature must stop doctors from performing partial-birth abortions, a procedure that he explains as, “an abortion in which the child is intentionally killed while the child is a considerable part of the way out of his or her mother’s womb.”
Sen. Barbara Boxer sees the bill differently. She believes partial-birth abortion is still a necessary part of (safe) medical practice, and describes Bush’s legislation as, “(A) historic day?Because for the first time in history Congress is banning a medical procedure that is considered medically necessary by physicians,” she said.
Howard Dean, Democratic Presidential candidate and doctor also said, “As a physician, I am outraged that the Senate has decided it is qualified to practice medicine.” He went on to say ?the bill will endanger the lives of countless women.” During his term in office, President Clinton vetoed partial-birth abortions twice, each time saying that the bill did not include exceptions to protect and ensure the health of woman.
One of the problems with partial-birth abortions is the term itself. Partial-birth abortion is not a formal medical term, and the idea the term carries with it is not consistent among those who utter it. The bill reads: ?Until, in the case of a headfirst presentation, the entire fetal head is outside the body of the mother, or, in the case of the breech presentation, any part of the fetal trunk past the navel is outside the body of the mother for the purpose of performing an overt act that the person knows will kill the partially delivered living fetus.”
This definition raises debate with people who oppose this bill, saying the bill could possibly apply to other common, and safe abortion procedures, making this bill the first step of banning abortion nation-wide.