Zeev's Turnips Talk Politics (ZTTP)

[sarals]

US justice department to defend 'partial-birth' abortion ban

WASHINGTON (AFP) - The Justice Department (news - web sites) vowed to fight for a late-term abortion ban, which faces three challenges in US courts next week.

In November, President George W. Bush (news - web sites) signed into law the ban on what abortion opponents call "partial-birth" abortions, but the law was blocked in federal court.

On Monday, courts in Nebraska, California and New York will begin trials on the law and the cases will last between two to four weeks, the Justice Department said.

"The Justice Department will work vigorously to defend the law prohibiting partial-birth abortions," Justice Department spokeswoman Monica Goodling said in a statement.

"The Department will be devoting all resources necessary to defend the bipartisan findings of Congress that this violent practice is unnecessary, as well as painful and cruel to the partially-born child," Goodling said.

The procedure is usually used in the fifth and sixth months of pregnancy. The law would allow the technique to be used if a mother's life is at risk.

The law defines a "partial-birth abortion" as any termination of a pregnancy in which the fetus, or its head, is taken outside the mother's body before being killed.

http://news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/afp/20040326/pl_afp/us_politics_abortion_040326210217