LIFE DIGEST: Appeals court gives partial-birth ban new life
- Aug 5, 2008
The U.S. Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals announced July 28 the full court will reconsider a decision by a three-judge panel that invalidated Virginia’s ban on partial-birth abortion, providing hope the law may survive after all.
In a 2-1 opinion in May, the Fourth Circuit panel ruled the state prohibition on “partial birth infanticide” was unconstitutional, saying it went beyond a 2003 federal law and restricted the right to abortion. The decision came only 13 months after the U.S. Supreme Court affirmed the Partial-birth Abortion Ban Act, a 2003 federal measure that prohibits an abortion technique that involves the killing of a nearly totally delivered baby usually in at least the fifth month of pregnancy.
The same three-judge panel, also in a 2-1 vote, had rejected the Virginia law in 2005. After its 2007 ruling upholding the federal law by a 5-4 vote, the Supreme Court returned the case from the Fourth Circuit to the appeals court for reconsideration in light of its opinion regarding the federal ban. In spite of that, the three-judge panel struck down the law again.
A partial-birth abortion, as typically performed, involves the feet-first delivery of an intact baby until only the head is left in the birth canal. The doctor pierces the base of the infant’s skull with surgical scissors before inserting a catheter into the opening and suctioning out the brain, killing the baby. The technique provides for easier removal of the baby’s head.
The Fourth Circuit Court, based in Richmond, Va., tentatively scheduled oral arguments for the period of Oct. 28-31, according to the Virginia attorney general’s office.
Oregon again chooses death over life
Oregon’s government-supported culture of death has struck again. The state has informed another cancer patient it would not cover chemotherapy but would underwrite death by physician-assisted suicide.
Randy Stroup, 53, of Dexter, Ore., requested the Oregon Health Plan pay for his chemotherapy but was informed it would provide for assisted suicide, not an expensive cancer treatment.
“It dropped my chin to the floor,” Stroup said of the letter of notification, according to FOX News. “[How could they] not pay for medication that would help my life, and yet offer to pay to end my life?”
Earlier this year, The Eugene (Ore.) Register-Guard reported Barbara Wagner, 64, was informed the Oregon Health Plan would not cover a drug to combat her recurring lung cancer but would provide for assisted suicide.
William Toffler, a professor of family medicine at Oregon Health and Science University, decried the state’s action after its refusal of Stroup was reported.
“It corrupts the consistent medical ethic that has been in place for 2,000 years,” Toffler said, according to FOX News.
“It’s chilling when you think about it. It absolutely conveys to the patient that continued living isn’t worthwhile.”
Stroup and Wagner both eventually received good news regarding their plights. Stroup resisted the state’s refusal, and eventually Oregon agreed to underwrite his chemotherapy, FOX News reported. In early June, Wagner received notification the pharmaceutical firm that markets the drug she had been prescribed would provide it without charge, according to The Register-Guard.
The Oregon Health Plan provides coverage for about 380,000 low-income residents monthly.
House calls on China to end coercive, one-child policy
The U.S. House of Representatives voted nearly unanimously July 30 to urge China to halt its coercive, population control program.
The language regarding the Communist regime’s one-child policy was approved as part of a resolution calling on Beijing to end its human rights abuses before the Summer Olympics, which officially begin Aug. 8 in the Chinese capital. The House vote was 419-1, with Republican Rep. Ron Paul of Texas the sole foe.
The policy, which has been in place since 1979, has been marked by forced abortions and sterilizations. Infanticide, especially of females, also has been reported. China’s policy limits couples in urban areas to one child and those in rural areas to two, if the first is a girl. In addition to abortions and sterilizations, penalties for violations of the policy have included fines, arrests and the destruction of homes.
The coercive program has helped produce a gender imbalance in the world’s most populous country, with many girls being aborted in order to enable a male baby to be born later. China had 120 males born for every 100 females in 2005, according to the United Nations Population Fund.
Late-term abortionist Tiller to go on trial in March
George Tiller, the country’s most notorious abortion doctor, will go on trial in March.
Clark Owens, a Sedgwick County (Kan.) district judge, set March 16 for a trial of the late-term, Wichita abortion provider, according to the Associated Press. Tiller, who has 19 misdemeanor counts against him, has been charged with failing to obtain another independent doctor’s opinion before performing a late-term abortion.
Women from across the country and numerous other countries travel to Wichita to undergo abortions at Tiller’s clinic, Women’s Health Care Services. The clinic advertises on its website it has “more experience in late abortion services over 24 weeks than anyone else currently practicing in the Western Hemisphere, Europe and Australia.”
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