Virginia's long dormant partial birth abortion ban was revived Wednesday by the U.S. Court of Appeals on a 6-5 vote. A court panels had blocked the law's implementation. The measure banned a kind of late term abortions known to opponents as partial birth abortions, known medically as intact dilation and extraction.
The Virginia ban is slightly more restrictive than the federal ban already upheld by the courts. According to the Richmond Times-Dispatch, the difference lies in the theoretical possibility that doctors could be prosecuted if regular D&Es inadvertently become intact D&Es.
With the revival of the Virginia law, expect an appeal by opponents to the United States Supreme Court which may take the case for its next term. Considering that partial-birth abortion is easily one of the more grotesque and usually medically unnecessary procedures, it's doubtful to me that a conservative court will overturn its ban.
______________________Labels: abortion, partial-birth abortion, virginia, virginia politics
