The docket for the U.S. Supreme Court term beginning Monday is scheduled to include a Department of Justice appeal to uphold a federal law banning so-called “partial-birth” abortion. President Bush signed the Partial-Birth Abortion Ban Act (S 3) into law in November 2003, but federal judges in California, Nebraska and New York each issued temporary restraining orders to prevent enforcement of the ban. The Planned Parenthood Federation of America, the American Civil Liberties Union on behalf of the National Abortion Federation and the Center for Reproductive Rights on behalf of four abortion providers filed lawsuits alleging that the law is unconstitutional because of the absence of a health exception, and federal judges in California, Nebraska and New York each issued temporary restraining orders to prevent enforcement of the ban. In place of a health exception, the law includes a long “findings” section with medical evidence presented during congressional hearings that, according to supporters of the law, indicates the procedures banned by the law are never medically necessary. The Supreme Court is scheduled to hear arguments in two of the cases on Nov. 8.
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