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Friday, July 8, 2005
Upholding a previous decision by a lower court, the U.S. 8th Circuit Court of Appeals in St. Louis ruled that the federal Partial Birth Abortion Ban Act is unconstitutional because it does not provide an exception for the health of the woman.
While the ban does provide an exception for the life of the mother it does not for the health of the mother.
"When `substantial medical authority' supports the medical necessity of a procedure in some instances, a health exception is constitutionally required," Judge Kermit Bye of the 8th Circuit wrote in the opinion.
"In effect, we believe when a lack of consensus exists in the medical community, the Constitution requires legislatures to err on the side of protecting women's health by including a health exception." Judge Bye went on to say.
The decision upheld a previous ruling by U.S. District Judge Richard Kopf of Lincoln, Neb. Federal judges in New York and San Francisco have also ruled in decisions overturning the ban. The decisions have been appealed and are expected to eventually be addressed by the Supreme Court.
President Bush signed the ban in 2003, but due to legal challenges it has not been enforced.
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This page is archived, and is no longer publicly editable.
Articles presented on Wikinews reflect the specific time at which they were written and published, and do not attempt to encompass events or knowledge which occur or become known after their publication.
Please note that due to our archival policy, we will not alter or update the content of articles that are archived, but will only accept requests to make grammatical and formatting corrections.
Note that some listed sources or external links may no longer be available online due to age.
The text of this article has been released into the public domain. In the event that this is not legally possible, this article may be used for any purpose, without any condition, unless such conditions are required by law. This applies worldwide. Copyright terms on images, however, may vary, so please check individual image pages prior to duplication.
