Federal court criticized for upholding 'gruesome' abortion method

Published: 2008-05-22

WASHINGTON (CNS) -- A federal appeals court's May 20 decision overturning Virginia's ban on partial-birth abortion thwarts "the clear and common sense of our state's citizens that a child who is almost entirely born should never be the victim of this brutal practice," according to the executive director of the Virginia Catholic Conference. Speaking on behalf of the state's two Catholic bishops, Jeff Caruso said he hoped a higher court would "remedy the grave harm done" by a panel of the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, based in Richmond, Va. By a 2-1 majority, the panel said Virginia's Partial-Birth Infanticide Act of 2003 "imposes an undue burden upon a woman's right to choose a pre-viability second-trimester abortion" and is therefore unconstitutional. "I cannot imagine that protecting the gruesome practice of partial-birth abortion is what our country's forefathers had in mind when they crafted our Constitution over 200 years ago," Caruso told Catholic News Service May 21 by e-mail. "Yet somehow two judges have found a way to declare Virginia's ban on the procedure unconstitutional."

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