Government

Court finds Mich. abortion ban unconstitutional

NEWS IN BRIEF — Posted July 16, 2007

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A federal appeals court in June rejected Michigan's ban on so-called "partial-birth" abortion. The decision came just two months after the U.S. Supreme Court narrowly upheld a federal statute outlawing the procedure, known as intact dilation and extraction.

A three-judge panel of the 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals unanimously ruled Michigan's 2004 law unconstitutional because it was so broadly worded that it would prohibit other, legal late-term abortion procedures. Judges found the statute's language vague and declined to approve what it called a "dragnet approach" to abortion legislation.

Brigitte Amiri, a staff attorney with the American Civil Liberties Union Reproductive Freedom Project, said the 6th Circuit "recognized the importance of stopping an extreme ban." Michigan Attorney General Mike Cox is reviewing the decision, spokesman Matt Frendewey said.

Note: This item originally appeared at http://www.ama-assn.org/amednews/2007/07/16/gvbf0716.htm.

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