Court upholds ban on abortion method

THE Supreme Court upheld the nationwide ban on a controversial abortion procedure yesterday, handing abortion opponents the long-awaited victory they expected from a more conservative bench.

The 5-4 ruling said the Partial Birth Abortion Ban Act that Congress passed and US President George W Bush signed into law in 2003 does not violate a woman’s constitutional right to an abortion.

The opponents of the act “have not demonstrated that the act would be unconstitutional in a large fraction of relevant cases”, Justice Athony Kennedy wrote in the majority opinion.

The administration had defended the law as drawing a bright line between abortion and infanticide.

Mr Bush said that it affirmed the progress his administration had made to uphold the “sanctity of life”.

“I am pleased that the Supreme Court has upheld a law that prohibits the abhorrent procedure of partial birth abortion,” he said.

It was the first time the court banned a specific procedure in a case over how — not whether — to perform an abortion.

Abortion rights groups, as well as the leading association of obstetricians and gynaecologists, have said the procedure sometimes is the safest for a woman.

Eve Gartner, of the Planned Parenthood Federation of America, said: “This ruling flies in the face of 30 years of Supreme Court precedent and the best interest of women’s health and safety.” ”

She had argued that point before the justices.

The law bans a method of ending a pregnancy, rather than limiting when an abortion can be performed.