ROE'S NOT DEAD, IT'S PININ' FOR THE FJORDS.

The "late-term" abortion law, which bans most abortions after the first trimester, is heading to court in three separate cases.

The simultaneous litigation centers on the ban of what lawmakers defined as "partial-birth" abortion and what doctors call "intact dilation and extraction" -- or D&X.

In the procedure, generally performed in the second trimester and occasionally in the third, a fetus is partially delivered and its skull is punctured. An estimated 2,200 to 5,000 such abortions are performed annually in the United States, out of 1.3 million total abortions.

Amazingly, this is how the law got passed in the first place:

The high court struck down a similar Nebraska law almost four years ago because it lacked an exception for procedures done to preserve a woman's health. Anticipating this problem, Congress declared that "a partial birth abortion is never necessary to preserve the health of a woman" and is "outside the standard of medical care."

The cases are being heard in New York, Nebraska and California. I'd expect the District Courts to offer opposing rulings, at which point the Supreme Court would get involved. Roe has been basically safe from this Court for a while, but another Bush term could give him the opportunity to change that.

Posted by Aaron S. Veenstra ::: 2004:03:29:11:19