WASHINGTON — A federal appeals court upheld July 8 a lower-court opinion striking down the Partial Birth Abortion Ban Act. A three-judge panel of the 8th Circuit Court of Appeals in St. Louis ruled unanimously that the 2003 federal law was unconstitutional because it does not include an exception to protect the health of the mother. The measure prohibits an abortion procedure performed on a nearly totally delivered unborn child, normally in the fifth or sixth month of pregnancy.
The opinion was the first of three on the law due from appeals courts. Last year, federal judges in New York City, San Francisco and Lincoln, Neb., invalidated the ban in separate cases. The U.S. Justice Department appealed all three decisions.
The 2nd Circuit in New York City and the 9th Circuit in San Francisco have yet to issue rulings in the cases appealed to those courts. The cases appeared destined to converge at the U.S. Supreme Court.
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