Supreme Court takes second partial-birth abortion case

Published: 2006-06-19

WASHINGTON (CNS) -- The Supreme Court has accepted a second case challenging the constitutionality of the federal law that prohibits the procedure known as partial-birth abortion. The court agreed June 19 to review a January ruling by the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, one of three federal appeals court rulings that have found the 2003 law unconstitutional. The new case is Gonzales v. Planned Parenthood. In February the court agreed to hear an appeal of a 2003 ruling by the 8th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, apparently on somewhat different legal grounds from the newly accepted case. That case is Gonzales v. Carhart, brought by a Nebraska abortion doctor who successfully challenged that state's law banning the same procedure. The court ruled 5-4 in 2000 that the Nebraska law was invalid because it lacked an exception to allow partial-birth abortion when the life or health of the mother is in danger.

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