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itted to cultural diversity and compliance with the Americans with Disabilities Act.
Three federal appeals courts
hear late-term abortion cases
Proceedings are under way
in New York, San Francisco
and Lincoln, Neb. in cases
against the sweeping ban
By E.A. Torriero
Chicago Tribune (KRT)
LINCOLN, Neb. — Judges in three
venues across the nation Monday be
gan hearing the first legal challenges
to a new federal law banning certain
types of abortions.
The cases in federal courts in New
York, San Francisco and Lincoln,
Neb., brought by physicians who per
form abortions and abortion-rights
groups, center mostly on what some
lawmakers define as "partial-birth
abortion" and what doctors call "in
tart dilation and extraction" or D&X.
Congress passed a prohibition on
such procedures that President Bush
signed into law in November. It is the
most sweeping legal action on the
matter since the Roe vs. Wade ruling
by the U.S. Supreme Court legalized a
woman's right to abortion in 1973.
Opponents claimed in courtrooms
Monday that the law is not specific and
does not take a woman's health into
account when deciding the necessity of
the procedure. Government lawyers ar
gued that the procedure is not only un
necessary but also inhumane
In the procedure, usually done in
the second trimester and occasionally
in the third, a fetus is partially brought
out of the womb and its skull is de
flated. An estimated 2,200 to 5,000
such terminations are performed an
nually in the United States, out of 1.3
million total abortions.
The U.S. Supreme Court struck
down a similar Nebraska law in 2000.
On Monday, Nebraska physician
LeRoy Carhart, who fought his state
law, was again in the same Lincoln
courthouse, this time as a plaintiff
against the federal government.
"The fight continues," he said after
the government and abortion-rights
attorneys presented their opening
arguments before U.S. District Court
Judge Richard Kopf.
The ban, carrying a maximum 2
year prison term for doctors convict
ed of performing the procedure, is on
hold pending legal actions.
Activists chose to challenge the law
in three symbolic venues from coast
to-coast. Along with several doctors,
the National Abortion Federation is
spearheading the challenge in New
York, the Planned Parenthood Federa
tion of America and others brought
the San Francisco case, and Carhart
along with the Center for Reproduc
tive Rights is in court in Lincoln.
Because of the long legal battle
waged in Nebraska by Carhart — and
Judge Kopf s familiarity with the evi
dence and legal nuances — the Lin
coln hearing is expected to be a bell
wether for future appeals, legal
observers said.
Ban opponents are hoping that
courts will follow precedent and mle
in their favor.
"Five courts of appeal have said that
(the laws) must include an exception
for the health of the mother," Priscilla
Smith, attorney for Carhart and the
plaintiffs, told Kopf.
Procedures for terminating preg
nancies are varied, Smith told Kopf, »
and usually rely on the discretion of
the doctor. Therefore Congress cannot
issue a sweeping ban, she said.
"Physicians have learned to expert
the unexpected," said Smith, who in
tends to present more than a dozen doc
tors and experts in the next two weeks.
But lead U.S. Attorney Anthony Cop
polino argued that because the proce
dures are varied, Congress could not be
expected to be specific in its language.
"We can't seem to get a common
term," he said about the disagree
ments over how to define the abor
tions in dispute.
Coppolino promised to present
updated evidence and experts to con
vince Kopf that Congress acted based
on new, detailed information. But
Kopf, who read pretrial transcripts of
Congress' debate, indicated that he
would be hard to convince.
"I don't see (that) Congress spent
anywhere near the effort that you
folks did in trying to give me a clear
picture," he told the attorneys.
Kopf seemed to view the bipartisan
bill more as a political creation than a
legislative one. Some lawmakers have
termed the procedure "barbaric."
"The question really is, 'Does Con
gress really care about whether the
procedure is unsafe or not?"' he asked.
(cj 2004, Chicago tribune. Distributed
by Knight Ridder/Tribune information
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