Supreme Court adds case to `partial-birth' ban review

Supreme Court adds case to `partial-birth' ban review
Copyright by The Associated Press
Published June 20, 2006

WASHINGTON -- The Supreme Court said Monday it will consider a second Bush administration appeal that seeks to reinstate a federal ban on what opponents call partial-birth abortion.

Justices had already said they would decide this fall whether the law is unconstitutional.

The court will review two cases from lower courts that struck down the law. Those courts are the 8th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in St. Louis and the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco.

Solicitor General Paul Clement, the Bush administration's lawyer before the court, had urged justices to put the San Francisco case on hold until they ruled in the 8th Circuit appeal. Instead, justices said they wanted to take up both.

The 8th Circuit case focuses on the law's lack of a health exception for a mother. The 9th Circuit Court found the law unconstitutional because it imposes "an undue burden" on a woman's right to choose to end her pregnancy.

Congress had voted in 2003 to prohibit the type of abortion, generally carried out in the second or third trimester.

Justice Samuel Alito is expected to be a key vote in the case. The court had split 5-4 in 2000 in striking down a state law barring the same procedure because the law lacked an exception to protect the health of the mother. Justice Sandra Day O'Connor, who was the tie-breaking vote, retired in January and was replaced by Alito.