LIFE DIGEST: Appeals court upholds Virginia ban
- Jul 7, 2009
A federal appeals court has upheld Virginia’s ban on partial birth abortion after panels from the same court twice invalidated the law.
The Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals voted in a 6-5 decision June 24 to uphold the 2003 prohibition on a procedure that involves the killing of a nearly totally delivered baby usually in at least the fifth month of pregnancy, the Richmond Times-Dispatch reported.
A Fourth Circuit panel had ruled most recently in a 2-1 opinion in May 2008 the ban on “partial birth infanticide” went beyond a federal prohibition and unconstitutionally restricted the right to abortion. The panel’s decision came after the U.S. Supreme Court directed the lower court to reconsider its original ruling in light of the justices’ support for the similar, federal law.
Also in this edition: At U.N., Obama team endorses abortion access, British doctors support current law on aid for suicides, Abortion doctor fined $10,000 in woman’s death and Music star gets 4 years for attempted abortion.
Then-Attorney General Bob McDonnell asked the full Fourth Circuit to rehear the panel’s ruling in the case, which is Richmond Medical Center v. Herring.
“Partial birth abortion is a deadly act that the people of Virginia have rightly rejected through the General Assembly and the Court was correct to uphold this important law,” said Olivia Gans, president of the Virginia Society for Human Life.
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 consists of federal courts in the states of Maryland, West Virginia, Virginia, North Carolina and South Carolina.
At U.N., Obama team endorses abortion access
The Obama administration continues to promote abortion rights for women overseas.
The administration introduced language at the United Nations the week of June 29 to July 3 that calls for “universal access” to “sexual and reproductive health services, including universal access to family planning,” according to Friday Fax, a publication of the Catholic Family and Human Rights Institute.
“Reproductive health services” has been widely interpreted by U.N. members to include abortion, and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton told members of Congress in April the administration regards abortion as “reproductive health.”
The U.S.-recommended language has produced division in the U.N. Great Britain, France, Belgium, Sweden, Switzerland and the Netherlands are among countries supporting the American position on the issue. Ireland, Malta, Poland and the Vatican are opposing the language.
Since Obama’s inauguration in January, he has initiated the reversal of pro-life, foreign policies in effect during the Bush administration. He repealed the Mexico City Policy, which barred federal funds from organizations that promote or perform abortions overseas. Obama also restored money through the State Department to the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA), which had its congressional funding withdrawn by the Bush administration for seven years for its support of China’s coercive population control program.
British doctors support current law on aid for suicides
The British Medical Association voted July 1 to oppose legislation to protect from prosecution people who help relatives or friends travel overseas to die by assisted suicide.
The association’s members voted 52 to 44 percent against a motion in support of overturning the threat of prosecuting Brits who aid in such assisted suicides. The association decided by a larger margin to oppose a proposal calling for a bill to permit patients who are “terminally ill and have mental capacity” to choose assisted suicide, according to the Guardian.
There is an attempt in the House of Lords to end the threat of prosecution of Brits who help people travel overseas to die by assisted suicide.
Nearly 800 British residents have expressed a desire to travel to Switzerland to die by assisted suicide, another British newspaper, the Daily Mail, reported in June. Dignitas, a Zurich assisted-suicide clinic, says it has aided in the suicides of more than 100 people from Britain, where the practice is illegal. Assisted suicide is permitted in Switzerland.
Abortion doctor fined $10,000 in woman’s death
Pro-lifers are disturbed Michigan abortion doctor Albert Hodari’s only punishment in the death of a 32-year-old woman was a $10,000 fine.
Regina Johnson died in September 2003 after receiving an abortion at Hodari’s Womencare clinic in Lathrup Village, Mich. Milton Nathanson performed the abortion, but the conduct of Hodari, his employer, was found to be negligent, incompetent and lacking in “good moral character,” resulting in the fine by the state.
Monica Migliorino Miller, director of Citizens for a Pro-Life Society, said $10,000 “seems such a small penalty to pay for the death of a human being. To Hodari this is pocket money. Let’s not forget that Regina Johnson is not the first woman to die as a consequence of an abortion performed at Hodari’s clinics, and yet this is all the penalty he receives. Let’s also not forget that in addition to Regina ‘s death — we must also mark the death of her innocent baby. Two human beings were killed — not just one.”
At least three other women have died at Hodari’s clinics since 2004, according to Operation Rescue.
The state issued Hodari’s fine in March, but it only recently was reported.
Music star gets 4 years for attempted abortion
Cheb Mami, an internationally known singer, was sentenced July 3 to five years in jail for attempting to force an abortion upon a former girlfriend.
The Algerian-born Mami, 42, participated in a plot by his former manager, Michael Lecorre, to abort the singer’s baby carried by the unnamed woman, 43, according to Agence France-Presse (AFP). The victim was drugged and restrained at a house owned by Mami in Algiers in 2005. Though an abortion was attempted, Mami’s former girlfriend learned when she returned to France her baby had survived. She gave birth to a girl, who is now 3 years old, AFP reported.
Mami’s sentence was issued by a French court outside Paris. Lecorre was sentenced to a four-year term.
Mami, known as the Prince of Rai, had several hit records in France during the 1990s, according to AFP. He became internationally known in 2001 when he sang with British star Sting on the hit single “Desert Rose.”
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