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November 28, 2005, JEFFERSON CITY, MO – The Eighth Circuit Court of Appeals upheld a decision striking down a Missouri ban on partial-birth abortions that lower courts had concluded lacked an exception for the health of pregnant women.
The 1999 law was enacted by the legislature after overriding a veto by Governor Mel Carnahan. The law sought to ban the late term procedure doctors refer to as "intact dilation and extraction" or "partial-birth abortion." However it was immediately challenged by Planned Parenthood and put on hold by a federal judge. After years of legal battles, U.S. District Judge Scott O. Wright declared the law unconstitutional in July 2004, citing the lack of a health exception. The three-judge federal appeals panel upheld Wright’s decision on Monday, November 28, 2005.
“We are very disappointed with the ruling,” said Deacon Larry Weber, Executive Director of the Missouri Catholic Conference. Weber noted that testimony before the legislature and the courts indicated that partial-birth abortion was never medically necessary. However the law was struck down as it lacked an exception to perform the procedure if medically necessary.
Partial-birth abortions are performed during the last stages of a woman’s pregnancy. The abortionist removes the fetus from the womb feet first until only the head remains in the womb. An incision is made at the base of the unborn child’s head and it’s brains are removed through a suction tube. The skull then collapses and the rest of the body is removed from the womb. The Missouri law had made this medically-unnecessary procedure a felony. |
