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  Supreme Court upholds federal ban on late-term abortion procedure
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Last EditedRP  Apr 18, 2007 05:58pm
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CategoryLegal Ruling
MediaNewspaper - San Jose Mercury News
News DateWednesday, April 18, 2007 04:15:00 PM UTC0:0
DescriptionThe Supreme Court's conservative majority handed anti-abortion forces a major victory today in a decision that bans a controversial abortion procedure and set the stage for further restrictions.

For the first time since the court established a woman's right to an abortion in 1973, the justices upheld a nationwide ban on a specific abortion method, labeled "partial-birth" abortion by its opponents.

The 5-4 decision written by Justice Anthony Kennedy said the Partial Birth Abortion Ban Act that Congress passed and President Bush signed into law in 2003 does not violate a woman's constitutional right to an abortion.

The law is constitutional despite not containing an exception that would allow the procedure if needed to preserve a woman's health, Kennedy said. "The law need not give abortion doctors unfettered choice in the course of their medical practice," he wrote in the majority opinion.

Kennedy's opinion, joined by Bush's two appointees, Chief Justice John Roberts and Justice Samuel Alito, was a long-awaited resounding win that abortion opponents expected from the more conservative bench.
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