Supreme Court upholds
'partial-birth' abortion ban
CNN.com POSTED: 10:34
a.m. EDT, April 18, 2007
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The
Supreme Court ruled 5-4 to uphold a ban on late-term abortions |
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WASHINGTON -- The Supreme Court
Wednesday upheld a controversial law banning a specific abortion procedure
critics call "partial birth," a ruling that could portend enormous social,
legal, and political implications for the divisive issue.
The sharply divided 5-4 ruling could prove historic, and offer a possible signal
of the court's willingness, under Chief Justice John Roberts, to someday revisit
the basic right to abortion guaranteed in the 1973 Roe v. Wade case.
Roberts joined Justices Samuel Alito, Clarence Thomas and Antonin Scalia in
Justice Anthony Kennedy's majority opinion.
Dissenting were Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, Stephen Breyer, David Souter and
John Paul Stevens.
At issue now is the constitutionality of a federal law banning a type of
abortion typically performed by doctors in the middle to late second trimester.
The legal sticking point was that the law lacked a "health exception" for a
woman who might suffer serious medical complications, something the justices
have said in the past is necessary when considering abortion restrictions.
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