Ohio judge kills ban on partial-birth abortions

Christian Century, Oct 17, 2001

Citing the U.S. Supreme Court's decision last year to strike down Nebraska's ban on late-term abortions, a federal district judge has ruled that a similar ban in Ohio is unconstitutional. Ohio's law violated the Constitution because it did not allow the procedure even when medical proof suggested it would be safer for some patients, U.S. District Judge Walter Rice decided on September 20.

Last fall, Rice temporarily blocked the state from enforcing the law, according to the Associated Press. Rice's recent decision "gives support for legal, safe abortion in this state," said Mary Brigid, executive director of the National Abortion and Reproductive Rights Action League of Ohio.

Rice's decision follows a string of similar rulings nationwide. Four months ago, a federal judge overturned a similar ban in Michigan, while a federal appeals courts did the same for similar laws in Illinois and Wisconsin. Last year the U.S. Supreme Court overturned a 1997 Nebraska statute that prohibited late-term abortions, ruling that the statute violates the Constitution by imposing an "undue burden" on a woman's constitutional right to end a pregnancy. Late-term abortions are known in the medical community as intact dilation and extractions.--RNS