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ACLU/Doctors Challenge Partial Birth Abortion Ban

Judge Stymies U.S. Justice Department Bid to Argue that the 'Health' of Women was Never an Issue

CHICAGO, February 12, 2004 (LifeSiteNews.com) - A US federal judge in Chicago has restricted the federal Justice Department's access to medical records in Illinois which it requested in its bid to defend the partial birth abortion ban. The Judge and hospitals cite a breach of patient confidentiality as the issue.

The American Civil Liberties Union and a group of Doctors is suing the federal Justice Department over charges that the partial birth abortion ban implemented late last year is unconstitutional. The group argues that the ban does not allow an exception for the procedure "if it is needed to protect the mother's life."

The US Department of Justice seeks to determine if the procedure was necessary to save the lives of the women who had the partial birth abortions performed at the hands of the doctors involved in the case.

The US Department of Justice has subpoenaed the medical records of the patients of the seven doctors involved in the suit. U.S. Chief District Judge Charles P. Kocoras has denied the request, despite the assurance from the Justice Department that names and any other identifying information could be withheld. Officials said that government lawyers commonly subpoena medical records with names and other identifying information withheld for other types of cases, such as fraud.

On the other hand, U.S. District Judge Richard Casey, who is hearing the case in New York, was frustrated by the lack of cooperation from the hospitals. An attorney for the plaintiffs told Judge Casey that the doctors cannot force hospitals to surrender their records, to which Judge Casey replied "I will not let the doctors hide behind the shield of the hospital. They didn't have to be plaintiffs. They chose to be, and now they are going to get it done."

The partial birth abortion ban, implemented by President George W. Bush in November 2003, outlaws a procedure carried out after the first trimester of pregnancy called "intact dilation and extraction", which consists of delivering a baby its head crushed, usually during an otherwise normal birth. The head is first caved in, in order that the baby be born lifeless and silent.

The suit is one of three filed last November by the National Abortion Federation after President Bush signed the ban into law.

Read related LifeSiteNews.com coverage from South Carolina at: http://www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/2003/apr/030429.html

Read local coverage at:
http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/nationworld/chi-0402120342feb12,1,2450045.sto...

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