Government
CMA issues legal brief opposing "partial-birth abortion" law
NEWS IN BRIEF — Posted April 19, 2004
In a friend-of-the-court brief, the California Medical Assn. has joined Planned Parenthood in asking the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California, San Francisco Division, to declare the Partial-Birth Abortion Ban Act of 2003 unconstitutional.
The act endangers women's health and makes criminals "out of highly trained physicians when they perform the safest and most common procedures available for second-trimester abortions," the CMA wrote.
"The act has no foundation in medical science, disrupts the informed-consent relationship between physicians and their patients, and violates firmly established constitutional principles."
At press time, trials challenging the law's constitutionality were under way in federal courts in San Francisco, New York and Lincoln, Neb.
Note: This item originally appeared at http://www.ama-assn.org/amednews/2004/04/19/gvbf0419.htm.
