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Partial-Birth Abortion Ban Resurrected as US Justice Department Appeals Negative Ruling

LINCOLN, Nebraska, December 2, 2004 (LifeSiteNews.com) - The US Department of Justice has launched an appeal of one partial-birth abortion ban ruling, arguing that the judge ignored evidence collected by Congress before passing the ban in 2003.

The judgement handed down by Lincoln's U.S. District Judge Richard Kopf in September said the ban on committing the grisly procedure is unconstitutional, because it does not allow any exception for the so-called health of the mother.

The Justice Department appealed the decision Tuesday to the 8th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Lincoln.

"The Partial-Birth Abortion Ban Act of 2003 prohibits ... one particular method of abortion that Congress, after nine years of hearings, found to be gruesome, inhumane, never necessary to preserve the health of women, and less safe than other readily available abortion methods," the Justice Department appeal read, as reported by the Associated Press.

"According to responsible medical opinion, there are times when the banned procedure is medically necessary to preserve the health of a woman and a respectful reading of the congressional record proves that point," Kopf claimed in his ruling. "No reasonable and unbiased person could come to a different conclusion."

President Bush signed the law into existence in November last year, although the law was never implemented, because of injunctions put in place by activist judges in collusion with Planned Parenthood and other pro-abortion forces.

The Justice Department argued that Kopf "far exceeded the bounds of substantial evidence review in crediting disputed anecdotal evidence regarding possible safety advantages of partial-birth abortion, while simultaneously discounting other evidence regarding its possible safety drawbacks."

Read related LifeSiteNews.com coverage:
Third Ruling Handed Down from Nebraska Federal Court: Partial Birth Ban Unconstitutional
http://www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/2004/sep/04090805.html

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