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Bob_Baran
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LINCOLN, Nebraska, December 2, 2004 (LifeSiteNews.com) - Twenty-six Republican members of Congress filed a friend-of-the-court brief Thursday requesting that an appeals court overturn the September decision of Nebraska judge Richard Kopf, who ruled that the ban on partial-birth abortion is unconstitutional.
The US Department of Justice launched an appeal of Kopf’s decision with the 8th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Lincoln last week. U.S. District Judge Richard Kopf ruled in September that a ban on committing the grisly procedure is unconstitutional because it does not allow any exception for the so-called health of the mother.
“We are supporting the Department of Justice in arguing that Congress not only acted properly in passing the ban, but that such a ban is needed to ensure that partially born children receive the same constitutional rights afforded to all persons,” said Jay Sekulow, chief legal counsel for the American Center for Law and Justice, which is representing the members of Congress, according to an Associated Press report.
Legislators have a “vital and compelling interest in preventing the spread of the practice of abortion into infanticide,” the brief argued.
“The frequency of abortions throughout pregnancy, the grotesque and barbaric methods of destruction of children in the womb, and the consequent cheapening of human life in the eyes of society, reflected in the widespread phenomena of ‘dumpster babies’ and violence against pregnant women, all threaten to lead to the acceptance of infanticide, especially in the first moments after birth,” the brief continued.
“The Partial-Birth Abortion Ban Act of 2003 prohibits … one particular method of abortion that Congress, after nine years of hearings, found to be gruesome, inhumane, never necessary to preserve the health of women, and less safe than other readily available abortion methods,” the Justice Department appeal read, as reported by the Associated Press.
Read related LifeSiteNews.com coverage:
Partial-Birth Abortion Ban Resurrected as US Justice Department Appeals Negative Ruling
lifesite.net/ldn/2004/dec/04120303.html
The US Department of Justice launched an appeal of Kopf’s decision with the 8th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Lincoln last week. U.S. District Judge Richard Kopf ruled in September that a ban on committing the grisly procedure is unconstitutional because it does not allow any exception for the so-called health of the mother.
“We are supporting the Department of Justice in arguing that Congress not only acted properly in passing the ban, but that such a ban is needed to ensure that partially born children receive the same constitutional rights afforded to all persons,” said Jay Sekulow, chief legal counsel for the American Center for Law and Justice, which is representing the members of Congress, according to an Associated Press report.
Legislators have a “vital and compelling interest in preventing the spread of the practice of abortion into infanticide,” the brief argued.
“The frequency of abortions throughout pregnancy, the grotesque and barbaric methods of destruction of children in the womb, and the consequent cheapening of human life in the eyes of society, reflected in the widespread phenomena of ‘dumpster babies’ and violence against pregnant women, all threaten to lead to the acceptance of infanticide, especially in the first moments after birth,” the brief continued.
“The Partial-Birth Abortion Ban Act of 2003 prohibits … one particular method of abortion that Congress, after nine years of hearings, found to be gruesome, inhumane, never necessary to preserve the health of women, and less safe than other readily available abortion methods,” the Justice Department appeal read, as reported by the Associated Press.
Read related LifeSiteNews.com coverage:
Partial-Birth Abortion Ban Resurrected as US Justice Department Appeals Negative Ruling
lifesite.net/ldn/2004/dec/04120303.html
