NEW YORK, April 27, 2004 (LifeSiteNews.com) – The US Department of Justice has rescinded its request for redacted medical files from New York-Presbyterian hospital.
The files were subpoenaed last November by the Department of Justice when the constitutionality of the partial-birth abortion ban was challenged by the National Abortion Federation and seven Planned Parenthood abortionists. The files were necessary for the Justice Department’s defence of the ban, because the lawsuit challenging the ban argues that partial-birth abortions are sometimes necessary for the health of the mother. The only proof of this assertion, other than from expert testimony, lies in the medical files themselves. Department of Justice lawyer Sheila M. Gowan told federal judge Richard Conway Casey of the Southern District of New York, that the subpoena was being withdrawn to expedite a decision from Judge Casey. “The government has believed from Day 1 that the medical records were relevant,” Ms. Gowan said, as reported by the New York Times. “We believe that.” Last week Judge Casey fined the New York-Presbyterian hospital $500 for contempt of court. The hospital appealed; an appeals court would have heard oral argument in the case in two weeks. Judge Casey, in response to the Justice Department decision Monday, called the move, “an interesting change in position,” adding, “I don’t know if I agree.” In Kansas, the only state where medical records reveal the reason for partial-birth abortion, the mental health of the mother “is the main or only reason why these procedures are performed,” Jay Sekulow, in his Trial Notebook covering the partial-birth abortion ban trials, said. Sekulow quotes Kansas Senator Mike DeWine, who criticizes Kansas state’s “mental health” provision for the practice of partial-birth abortion, “…we have a real-life example of just how this power to define a mother’s health would be used. Kansas is currently the only State…that requires partial-birth abortions to be reported…separate from other abortions. In 1999…Every single one of these partial-birth abortions, 182 out of 182, were reported by the abortionist as being performed on viable children for mental as opposed to physical health reasons.”
See related LifeSiteNews.com coverage, “Kansas’ Partial-Birth Abortion Law Gutted By Mental Health Provision,” at: https://www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/1998/aug/98082401.html “Partial-Birth Abortion Ban Trials Continue to Shock and Dismay,” at: https://www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/2004/apr/04040705.html See the New York Times coverage: https://www.nytimes.com/2004/04/27/politics/27ABOR.html