U.S. REPUBLICANS RUSH PARTIAL-BIRTH ABORTION BILL

WASHINGTON, July 11, 2002 (LSN.ca) – Republicans in Congress are fast-tracking their latest attempt to ban partial-birth abortion, hoping to bring it to the House of Representatives in two weeks. President Bush has promised to pass such a bill if Congress can get it through (after Bill Clinton vetoed two such bills), but it is not clear that the new bill would survive a Supreme Court review.  Rep. Steve Chabot’s bill would ban the procedure except to save “the life of the mother” but not her so-called “health”—one of the problems the Court found with the Nebraska bill. Instead, the new version states: “The facts indicate that a partial-birth abortion is never necessary to preserve the health of a woman, poses serious risks to a woman’s health and lies outside the standard of medical care.”“This bill, as written, is clearly unconstitutional,” said Simon Heller, a lawyer who helped overturn a 2000 Nebraska law. But Robert A. Destro, law professor at Catholic University of America’s Columbus School of Law, says: “This case could be won.”  To read Washington Times coverage see:  https://www.washingtontimes.com/national/20020710-895824.htm