Posted on: Thursday, June 3, 2004

EDITORIAL
Late-term abortions: 9th Circuit rationality

The 9th Circuit Court of Appeals, which hears federal lawsuits from Western states including Hawai'i, is widely known as the most liberal of the nation's appeals courts.

Thus, before celebrating a 9th Circuit judge's sensible finding that the Partial-Birth Abortion Act, signed into law by President Bush last November, is unconstitutional, it's wise to wait for rulings by judges in New York and Nebraska on similar challenges.

"The act poses an undue burden on a woman's right to choose an abortion," wrote U.S. District Judge Phyllis Hamilton. Her ruling will apply to the 900 or so Planned Parenthood clinics and their doctors, who perform about half of all abortions in the United States.

Justice Department attorneys argued that the procedure, known to doctors as intact dilation and extraction, is inhumane, causes pain to the fetus and is never medically necessary.

The law allows the procedure only to save a woman's life but not to protect her health. How do you draw that line?

We'd rather the determination were made by physicians instead of ideologically tilted lawyers and lawmakers in Congress. The 40,000-member American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists says banning this procedure is "inappropriate, ill-advised and dangerous."

We continue to reject the assertion of Congress and the president that they're qualified to overrule the medical community on this highly specialized and personal health-care issue.