Federal court strikes down Virginia's partial-birth abortion ban

Published: 2005-06-06

RICHMOND, Va. (CNS) -- A three-judge panel of the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Richmond ruled June 3 that a Virginia ban on the partial-birth abortion procedure is unconstitutional because it does not include an exception to protect a woman's health. The 2-1 decision by the appeals panel upheld a ruling by a federal judge last year on the 2003 Virginia law, which made it a felony to perform a partial-birth abortion. The date the law was to take effect was blocked by the lawsuit challenging it. The appeals court judges who struck down the Virginia law said they based their decision on a 2000 U.S. Supreme Court ruling that struck down a similar Nebraska law banning partial-birth abortions because it did not contain a health exception. "Because the Virginia act does not contain an exception for circumstance when the banned abortion procedures are necessary to preserve a woman's health, we affirm the summary judgment order declaring the act unconstitutional on its face," Judge M. Blane Michael wrote in the majority opinion.

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