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U.S. Appeals Court Upholds Striking Down of Virginia Law Banning Partial Birth Abortion

RICHMOND, June 6, 2005, (LifeSiteNews.com)  The 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, by a vote of 2-1, has upheld a ruling by U.S. District Judge Richard L. Williams of Richmond that declares a Virginia law banning a type of late-term abortion as unconstitutional due to its lack of an exception to protect a woman’s health.

The law, passed by the 2003 Virginia General Assembly, was challenged by The Center for Reproductive Rights. It called for a ban on “partial birth abortion”, where the child is partially delivered before being killed. The Virginia statute called it "partial-birth infanticide."

Judge Williams immediately blocked enforcement of the Virginia law on July 1, 2003, the day it went into effect, calling it a "no-brain case." He declared it unconstitutional six months later, after granting a plaintiff’s motion for summary judgment.

A similar law in Nebraska was struck down in 2000 for the same reason, namely, not having a ‘health exception’ clause.

Judge M. Blane Michael, of the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, wrote in the majority opinion, which was joined by Judge Diana Gribbon Motz. In the ruling Jude Michael stated “Because the Virginia Act does not contain an exception for circumstance when the banned abortion procedures are necessary to preserve a woman's health, we affirm the summary judgment order declaring the act unconstitutional on its face,"

Judge Paul V. Niemeyer, who dissented from the majority position, said the Virginia statute differs substantially from the Nebraska law because it makes it a crime to kill a "human infant who has been born alive, but who has not been completely extracted or expelled from its mother."

The state could ask the full appeals court or the Supreme Court to review the decision.

DB

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