US judge rules disputed anti-abortion law unconstitutional

SAN FRANCISCO : A US judge Tuesday ruled a disputed law banning late-term abortions unconstitutional, dealing a blow to President George W. Bush just six months after he signed it into law.

The White House deplored the ruling made in San Francisco, with spokesman Scott McClellan saying late-term abortion was "an abhorrent procedure that must be ended once and for all." In her ruling, the first of three cases contesting the law to be decided, US District Judge Phyllis Hamilton permanently barred US Attorney General John Ashcroft from enforcing the law against Planned Parenthood Federation of America, a family planning group that performs around half of all US abortions.

The judge said the law infringed too much on the US Supreme Court's landmark 1973 Roe versus Wade decision allowing abortion. "This court concludes that the act is unconstitutional because it poses an undue burden on a woman's ability to choose a second-trimester abortion; is unconstitutionally vague; and requires a health exception," Hamilton wrote.

"Accordingly, defendant John Ashcroft, in his official capacity as attorney general of the United States, and his employees, officers, agents, attorneys, and successors in office are permanently enjoined from enforcing" the law in the group's more than 900 clinics nationwide.

The law would ban an abortion method that is usually used in the fifth or sixth month of pregnancy but can be used as early as the 12th to 15th weeks. The method is defined by law as a "partial-birth abortion" in which the fetus, or its head, is taken outside the mother's body before being killed.

Bush and the US Justice Department had described partial-birth abortions as inhumane and said they are never justified by medical reasons. The law would have outlawed such abortions, including those approved by doctors. Hamilton found that ban unconstitutional.

The decision dealt a blow to Bush, who signed the Partial-Birth Abortion Ban Act into law in November after a similar law was twice vetoed by ex-president Bill Clinton.

The White House spokesman said Bush "strongly disagrees with today's California court ruling, which overturns the overwhelming bipartisan majority in Congress that voted to pass this important legislation," and promised an appeal.

Bush "is committed to building a culture of life in America and the administration will take every necessary step to defend this law in the courts," McClellan said. The ruling came just days after another court in San Francisco struck down another law barring doctor-assisted euthanasia in the state of Oregon.

It marked the first court decision to be handed down in three similar cases contesting the partial-birth abortion act. Other challenges are pending decision in the states of New York and Nebraska. Other Republican politicians were also outraged, while Democratic Senator Dianne Feinstein welcomed the ruling, saying she hoped it heralded similar outcomes in the two remaining cases.

"It is a barbaric procedure, and it should be banned," said US Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist. "I'm very disappointed in the decision today, and I think that ultimately that decision will be overturned."

Abortion has been one of the most politically and socially divisive issues in the United States since the Roe v. Wade ruling, frequently splitting the country along party and religious lines.

Pro-choice advocates immediately hailed the decision.

"Today's ruling is a landmark victory for medical privacy rights and women's health," said Gloria Feldt, president of Planned Parenthood of America, the group which brought the case against Ashcroft.

"Decisions involving pregnancy are personal decisions for a woman and her family. Medical decisions are for her doctor to make, based on his or her professional judgment. These decisions should not be made by politicians," she said.