Opponents fight abortion ban in court

OPPONENTS of a new federal ban on certain late-term abortions are already challenging it in court and say they’re willing to press their case all the way to the US Supreme Court if that’s what it takes.

“Until we can make every pregnancy a planned pregnancy and a wanted pregnancy then I think we have to honour the rights of women that decide to terminate their pregnancies,” said Dr LeRoy Carhart of Bellevue, Nebraska, who successfully challenged a similar ban in his home state and won at the US Supreme Court three years ago.

Less than an hour after President George W Bush signed the federal law on Wednesday, Dr Carhart and three other doctors won a temporary restraining order from a federal judge to block the legislation. The order by US District Judge Richard Kopf in Lincoln applies only to the four doctors, who together are licensed in 13 states across the Midwest and East, and their staffs.