Abortion-rights groups say language overly broad

WASHINGTON: President Bush is handing abortion opponents a victory sought through seven years of political battle as he signs legislation that bans some abortions. The president’s signature represents an end to a legislative crusade that began when Republicans captured the House in 1995. Former President Clinton twice vetoed similar bills, arguing that they lacked an exception to protect the health of the mother. But for abortion rights advocates, the current president’s action simply moves the fight over a procedure opponents call partial birth abortion from Congress to the courts. “The president is strongly committed to building a culture of life in America,” White House press secretary Scott McClellan said yesterday. “This legislation enjoyed overwhelming bipartisan support. Partial birth abortion is an abhorrent procedure, and the President has strongly supported banning it.” The bill Bush has said he was pleased to usher into law yesterday forbids an abortion, generally performed in the second or third trimester, in which a foetus is partially delivered before being killed, usually by having its skull punctured.

Aware of its backing among the religious conservatives that make up a key portion of his base of political support, the President called the bill “very important legislation that will end an abhorrent practice and continue to build a culture of life in America.” But despite his strong anti-abortion credentials, Bush is also mindful of the more moderate voters he cannot afford to alienate. So last week during a news conference with reporters, he repeated a position he offered during his 2000 campaign, saying he would not seek a total ban on abortion because public opinion had not yet shifted to support such a move. The bill prohibits doctors from committing an “overt act” designed to kill a partially delivered foetus. There is no exception to the ban if the woman’s health is at risk or if the child would be born with ailments. Similar to a Nebraska law struck down by the Supreme Court three years ago, the legislation imposes the most far-reaching limits on abortion since the high court in 1973 established a woman’s right to end a pregnancy. Supporters argue the bill applies only to a procedure done late in pregnancy — and relatively rarely — and that the procedure is never necessary to protect the health of the mother. But abortion-rights groups say the law has overly broad language that could criminalise several safe and common procedures and fault it for not providing an exception to protect a mother’s health. They also fear the law will represent the first step in a larger campaign to eventually ban all abortions.

As a result, opponents attacked it in three separate challenges even before it became law, with lawsuits filed Friday in federal courts in San Francisco, Omaha, Nebraska, and New York City. Hearings were scheduled yesterday on all three suits’ request for temporary restraining orders that would block the law from taking effect. In Lincoln, Nebraska, yesterday, US District Judge Richard Kopf indicated he had substantial concerns about the new law. “It seems to me the law is highly suspect, if not a per se violation of the Constitution,” he said at the outset of his hearing. Planned Parenthood sued in San Francisco on behalf of the group and women seeking the type of abortions the law would ban, while the Center for Reproductive Rights filed in Omaha on behalf of physicians. The ACLU sought a similar order in New York. Also yesterday, an abortion rights group aired a television ad that says Bush’s signature would erode doctor-patient privacy rights and could represent his first step toward overturning a woman’s right to end a pregnancy. The NARAL Pro-Choice America Foundation is spending under $500,000 to air ads in Washington, as well as Des Moines, Iowa, and Manchester, New Hampshire, the sites of key early voting in next year’s presidential contest. And activists, organized by the National Organisation for Women, were planning a protest outside the Ronald Reagan Building and International Trade Center where Bush was to sign the bill. “We won’t stand by silently as this administration attempts to erode our rights,” NOW President Kim Gandy said. The new bill defines partial birth abortion as delivery of a foetus “until, in the case of a headfirst presentation, the entire foetal head is outside the body of the mother, or, in the case of the breech presentation, any part of the foetal trunk past the navel is outside the body of the mother for the purpose of performing an overt act that the person knows will kill the partially delivered living foetus.” Sponsors of the legislation say it is used roughly 2,200 times a year, principally during the 20th through 26th weeks of pregnancy.