Abortion Law

Pennsylvania's on-again, off-again abortion law is off again - for now. Yesterday, after the years-old law had been in effect less than two days, a Commonwealth Court judge blocked some of its most controversial parts. For now, pregnant teen-agers will not need a parent's or judge's permission before getting an abortion. Also, women seeking an abortion will not have a mandatory 24-hour wait, or get a mandatory lecture by a physician about fetus development, the abortion procedure, and alternatives for continuing a pregnancy.

In many ways, the federal court decision last week upholding almost all of Pennsylvania's abortion-control law was like an earthquake that scientists had tried in vain to predict. When it finally occurred, it was at the wrong time, in the wrong place and it altered the landscape in ways no one had anticipated. For almost two decades, abortion-rights proponents have struggled to preserve Roe v. Wade, the Supreme Court decision that made abortion legal in the United States. For most of the last decade, that struggle has been in the face of an increasingly conservative high court that most assume eventually will reverse the landmark 1973 ruling.

Teen-agers were turned away at abortion clinics yesterday as the state's tough abortion law took effect. Meanwhile, abortion-rights activists filed a lawsuit - CHOICE vs. Ernie Preate Jr. - seeking an injunction against the law until clinics are supplied with state-mandated booklets that the law says must be made available to women seeking abortions. Commonwealth Court Judge Dante Pellegrini of Harrisburg said he would not rule on the suit before tomorrow. At the Planned Parenthood clinic in Center City, four teen-agers were turned away by early afternoon, said Jane Coombs, executive director.

The Louisiana Legislature yesterday overrode Gov. Buddy Roemer's veto of the nation's strictest abortion law, which outlaws most abortions and sets prison terms for doctors who perform the procedure. Supporters of the bill said they hoped the court challenges would lead to reversal of the 1973 Supreme Court decision that established abortion rights, Roe v. Wade. Opponents of the legislation said they would immediately move in court to stop enforcement. The Senate voted 29-9, three more than the two-thirds majority required to override Roemer's veto Friday of the measure.

King Baudouin temporarily gave up his throne yesterday because his "moral objections" would not let him sign a controversial law legalizing abortion. The government issued a statement saying it had declared the devout Roman Catholic unable to reign - a procedure last used in 1940 when his father, King Leopold III, surrendered to Nazi invaders. A bill normally becomes law only after it is signed by the king and published in a gazette, so the deal allowed the abortion law to take effect over the king's objections.

Abortion providers asked a federal appeals court yesterday to stop implementation of Pennsylvania's abortion control law while they petition the U.S. Supreme Court to take a new look at the law's constitutionality. Unless the eleventh-hour attempt succeeds, the 6-year-old law could take effect next week. The request for a stay, by Planned Parenthood of Southeastern Pennsylvania and other abortion providers, was opposed by state officials. State Attorney General Ernie Preate Jr.'s office is expected to file a response tomorrow to the Third U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals.

A federal judge yesterday blocked Nebraska's law that made it a crime to perform certain abortion procedures, joining judges in most states who have prevented the laws from taking effect. In Lincoln, U.S. District Judge Richard Kopf ruled that Nebraska's law, which was passed last year, was overly broad and therefore an unconstitutional bar against a woman's right to an abortion. "I'm not surprised at the ruling, but it's really fortunate that courts continue to protect citizens from politicians and their agendas," said Susan Hale, a spokeswoman for Planned Parenthood in Nebraska.

For the second time in three years, the Reagan administration has asked the Supreme Court to consider overturning the bitterly controversial 1973 ruling that legalized abortion. The Justice Department filed a brief yesterday in a Missouri case in which the state seeks to restore major provisions of an anti-abortion law. A federal appeals court ruled in July that the provisions are unconstitutional. Last month, Missouri asked the Supreme Court to reverse the appeals court ruling and uphold the two-year-old law. One invalidated part of the law says that human life begins at conception.

A last-ditch effort by abortion-rights activists to put off Pennsylvania's abortion law was dashed late last night by the U.S. Supreme Court. Justice David H. Souter turned down a request to uphold an injunction that has blocked the six-year-old law - considered the strictest in the country - from taking effect. The law can now kick in as early as tomorrow. "It's not a big surprise," said a weary Carol Tracy, head of the Women's Law Project, which has led the court challenge to the law since it was passed in 1988.

Ark. approves abortion limit LITTLE ROCK - Arkansas lawmakers overrode a veto Wednesday and gave the state the most restrictive abortion law in the country - a near-ban on the procedure from the 12th week of pregnancy onward that is certain to end up in court. A day after the GOP-led Senate voted to override Democratic Gov. Mike Beebe's veto, the GOP-controlled House voted 56-33 to do the same. Only a simple majority was needed in each chamber. The ban would prohibit abortions from the point when a fetus' heartbeat can typically be detected using an abdominal ultrasound.

Six months after Pennsylvania began regulating abortion clinics as outpatient surgery centers under a controversial new law, most clinics are complying - and complaining. The state lists 17 abortion providers, down from 22 a year ago. But only 13 of the remaining providers have been approved to do surgical abortions, a loss of five surgical facilities. The four remaining clinics are restricted to providing nonsurgical terminations using abortion pills. Not all the losses can be attributed to the new law, Act 122. And it's too soon to tell if the measure will drive up prices and further reduce women's access to abortion, as critics have predicted.

PHOENIX - Arizona's ban on abortions starting at 20 weeks of pregnancy will take effect this week as scheduled after a federal judge ruled Monday that the new law is constitutional. U.S. District Judge James Teilborg said the statute may prompt a few pregnant women who are considering abortion to make the decision earlier. But he said the law is constitutional because it does not prohibit women from making the decision to end their pregnancies. He also wrote that the state had provided "substantial and well-documented" evidence that a fetus has the capacity to feel pain during an abortion by at least 20 weeks.

Maryland prosecutors on Tuesday dropped murder charges against South Jersey abortion provider Steven Brigham, acknowledging that they lacked jurisdiction to pursue the case. Cecil County State's Attorney Edward D.E. Rollins III also dropped murder cases against a codefendant, physician Nicola Irene Riley, 46, of Salt Lake City, who worked for Brigham. In a news release, Rollins said the investigation was continuing. Brigham, 55, of Voorhees, was charged with murdering five viable fetuses found in his secretive abortion clinic in Elkton, Md., which had no sign and was not disclosed to regulators.

NEW YORK - Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg suggested Friday that her predecessors on the Supreme Court mistimed the milestone 1973 Roe v. Wade case that legalized abortion nationwide. "It's not that the judgment was wrong, but it moved too far too fast," Ginsburg told a symposium at Columbia Law School marking the 40th anniversary of her joining the faculty as its first tenure-track female professor. At the time of the Roe ruling, abortion was legal on request in four states, was allowed under limited circumstances in about 16 others, and was outlawed under nearly all circumstances in the rest, including Texas - where the case originated.

AUSTIN, Texas - A Texas abortion law passed last year that requires doctors to show sonograms to patients can be enforced while opponents challenge the measure in court, a federal appeals court said Tuesday in a ruling that signaled the judges believe the law is constitutional. When the state will begin enforcing the law was not clear. The group that brought the case, the Center for Reproductive Rights, is weighing how to proceed and has 14 days to ask for a rehearing of the case. If there are no appeals by then, the court will likely allow the state to begin enforcing the law. The three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit overturned a temporary order against enforcing the law and went further to advise U.S. District Judge Sam Sparks how he should ultimately rule.

South Jersey abortion provider Steven C. Brigham was arraigned Friday morning in Elkton, Md., and charged with murdering five viable fetuses found in his secret clinic there, authorities said. Brigham, 55, of Voorhees, N.J., was released after posting the $500,000 bond set by Cecil County Circuit Judge V. Michael Whalen. The unprecedented prosecution wades into uncharted legal waters, lawyers on both sides say. Maryland's fetal-homicide law, passed in 2005, has so far been used only in cases in which a pregnant woman carrying a viable fetus was murdered or assaulted.