By Terry Vanderheyden
KANSAS CITY, November 29, 2005 (LifeSiteNews.com) – A Missouri law that bans partial-birth infanticide has been struck down as unconstitutional.
A federal appeals panel ruled Monday that the 1999 Infants Protection Act, which limits late-term partial-birth abortions, has decided that the law is unconstitutional because it does not have a provision for the so-called health of the mother.
The 8th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals panel of three judges hearkened back to a 2000 Supreme Court ruling that struck down a similar Nebraska law because of a failure of the law to provide for the health of the mother.
Missouri Right to Life Executive Director Patty Skain told the Kansas City Star that she was not surprised, although she was dismayed that the court would strike down a law that bans “infanticide.”
“This is not a ban on abortion,” she said. “It’s a ban on a procedure that polls have shown that most people believe is barbaric . . . We hope for a Supreme Court in the future that believes that this procedure should not be protected.”
The exception for ‘health’ has proven to be a wide open door for abortion on demand at any stage of pregnancy, with the term ‘health’ being interpreted so broadly as to make it effectively meaningless.