Partial-Birth Abortion Ban Act
The Partial-Birth Abortion Ban Act (Public Law 108-105, HR 760, S. 3, 18 US Code 1531) or PBA Ban is a law of the United States that a particular method of abortion is after the first trimester of pregnancy a punishable offense except in cases where the life of the pregnant woman is threatened. The law is considered to be one of the most important restrictions of the Roe v. Wade established the right to abortion up to the 28th or 24th week of pregnancy.
term
The creation of the word partial-birth abortion is not a medical term, but was coined in 1995 by the anti-abortion group National Right to Life Committee as a name for an abortion method that is called the dilation and extraction method in medicine . In this abortion method, the human fetus is removed from the uterus ( extraction ) or the birth canal by widening the cervical canal ( dilation ) . The term partial-birth abortion was invented as a name for this method in order to strengthen the rejection of abortion in the population. The linguistic meaningfulness of the term partial-birth abortion is questionable because it medically in the engagement not to a birth ( birth is).
Legislative history
Abortion opponents and representatives of the Christian right advocated the law after the failure of the attempt to ban abortion altogether in the 1980s. The aim of the partial-birth abortion act was to enforce partial bans on abortions and to make late abortions more difficult by prohibiting certain abortion procedures.
At the initiative of the Christian right, a corresponding bill banning partial-birth abortion was first introduced in 1995 in the 104th Congress of the United States ( Partial-Birth Abortion Act , HR 1833, 104th Cong.). The bill was passed by both Houses of Congress, but President Bill Clinton vetoed it. An attempt to override the president's veto failed in the Senate. In 1997 the draft was reintroduced to the 105th Congress of the United States and approved by both Houses. Bill Clinton vetoed again and an overriding of the veto failed again in the Senate. Majorities in the Senate and the House of Representatives were also found in the 106th Congress of the United States , although the President had announced in advance that he would veto the bill again. The law was not finally passed because at the time the US Supreme Court ruled that a ban on the dilation and extraction method in the state of Nebraska was against the constitution ( Stenberg v. Carhart 2000).
After a period of revision in which the Christian right had focused on other bills restricting abortion rights, the bill was eventually re-introduced in the 108th United States Congress . The initiator was Rick Santorum . The bill was passed by the House of Representatives by 281 to 142 votes and by the Senate by 64:34 votes, and was enacted on November 5, 2003 by President George W. Bush . Barack Obama voted against the law.
The constitutionality of the law was called into question immediately after it came into force. Three different United States District Courts declared the law unconstitutional. As a reason the lack of an exemption was called, which takes into account the health of the pregnant woman (and not just her life) as precedents Roe v were. Wade and Stenberg v. Called Carhart. The government appealed the three district court judgments, which were upheld by three appellate courts .
In 2006 hearings were held in the United States Supreme Court . On April 18, 2007, the Supreme Court ruled the Gonzales v. Carhart with 5: 4 votes that this law does not violate the constitution. The majority opinion of the court was written by Anthony Kennedy , he was supported by John Roberts , Antonin Scalia , Clarence Thomas and Samuel Alito . Ruth Bader Ginsburg wrote the opposite opinion, she was supported by David Souter , John Paul Stevens and Stephen Breyer . A crucial factor is the replacement of Sandra Day O'Connor with Samuel Alito in 2006. O'Connor had previously voted against a similar law.
literature
- Act in full ( PDF )
Individual evidence
- ↑ Sandra Mauer: Women as a special object of protection under criminal law norms. Logos, Berlin 2009, ISBN 978-3-8325-2339-8 , p. 192 f.
- ↑ Julie Rovner: Partial-Birth Abortion: Separating Fact from Spin . In: NPR. August 1, 2012.
- ↑ Ekkehard fields (ed.): Facticity production in discourses: The power of the declarative. De Gruyter, Berlin 2013, ISBN 978-3-11-028973-2 , p. 181 .
- ↑ a b c d Manfred Brocker: Protest, adaptation, establishment: Christian rights in the political system of the USA . Campus Verlag, Frankfurt am Main 2004, ISBN 3-593-37600-8 , p. 232 f.
- ↑ p. 3 (108th): Partial-Birth Abortion Ban Act of 2003 . From: govtrack.us , accessed February 18, 2016.
- ↑ Final vote results for call 530, Bill title: Partial-Birth Abortion Ban Act . Office of the Clerk, US House of Representatives.
- ^ US Senate Roll Call Votes 108th Congress - 1st Session . United States Senate.
- ↑ United States District Court for the Northern District of California (June 1, 2004): Planned Parenthood v. Ashcroft, Order Granting Permanent Injunction, Findings of Fact and Conclusions of Law in Support Thereof ( Memento of the original dated December 15, 2006 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. .
- ↑ United States District Court for the Southern District of New York (August 26, 2004): National Abortion Federation v. Ashcroft, Opinion and Order .
- ↑ United States District Court for the District of Nebraska (September 8, 2004): Carhart v. Ashcroft, Memorandum and Order ( Memento of the original dated February 3, 2007 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. .
- ↑ Linda Grenhouse: Justices Back Ban on Method of Abortion . In: New York Times. April 19, 2007.
