Partial Birth

PHILADELPHIA - George W. Bush assured America last night that he would make "great decisions" on the basis of convictions rather than opinion polls. But the speech he delivered to cheering delegates at the Republican convention here was obviously, at least in part, a product of opinion polls. Bush showed the kind of touch that all political leaders seek and rarely achieve. Without falling into the trap of heavy-handed vituperation, he managed to remind the nation of the vulnerabilities of President Clinton and his choice as his successor, Vice President Al Gore.

Polite language aside, abortion is still killing a baby Paul Blumenthal painted a sterile, medical picture of abortion as he applauded the recent Supreme Court ruling upholding partial birth abortion ("Leave medicine to the doctors," Opinion Commentary, July 25). In his account, delivering a baby, except for its head, then puncturing the skull and suctioning out the brain is not murder; it's simply an "abortion procedure." The baby is only a "fetus." Mr. Blumenthal uses the word "viability" rather than saying that the baby is still dependent on its mother.

IN THE RECENT decision concerning Carhart v. Stenberg and the so-called partial birth abortion procedure, it was encouraging to see that someone in government -- in this case, five members of the U.S. Supreme Court -- finally appears to understand the importance of the physician-patient relationship and why it supercedes any discussion surrounding the relative social or political merits of a particular abortion procedure. Indeed, while there has been agonizing debate over such issues as the stages of fetal development and the relative acceptability of certain abortion procedures, such discussion is really not germane to the central issue, correctly identified by the Supreme Court: before viability, a woman has the constitutionally protected right to an abortion.

HERE'S A question about abortion: Why was the right to an abortion protected by the Supreme Court in 1973? Answer: to stop death. Women were dying in significant numbers trying to end crisis pregnancies. The Roe vs. Wade ruling ensured that women have a basic right to end a pregnancy -- and not sacrifice their lives or health in the process. Pro-life supporters argue that now, to protect women, innocent potential lives are lost to grisly abortion procedures. It is a wrenching choice.

WASHINGTON - Turning back the latest, and potentially most threatening, attack on Roe vs. Wade, a deeply divided Supreme Court struck down for the first time yesterday a state law that bans "partial-birth" abortions."

The nation's highest court recently heard arguments in Carhart vs. Stenberg, which explores one of the most explosive offshoots of the abortion debate since its legalization in 1973. The Supreme Court case was spawned by a Nebraska statute that bans the controversial procedure dubbed "partial birth" abortion (PBA). The introduction of the term "partial birth" into the American lexicon has added a new dimension to abortion politics in the United States and left people on both sides of the issue wondering what PBA is and how we got here.

WASHINGTON -- Supreme Court Justice John Paul Stevens blocked two states yesterday from enforcing laws that make it a crime to perform a specific type of late-term abortion.His action marked the first time that the court or any of its members had barred a state from enforcing laws -- growing rapidly in number across the nation -- that ban a procedure known by those who oppose it as "partial-birth" abortion.In separate orders in two cases, Stevens temporarily blocked Illinois and Wisconsin laws until the Supreme Court rules on forthcoming appeals that have challenged the laws.

NO matter how they phrase it, anti-abortion advocates' efforts to craft a bill banning so-called "partial-birth" abortions fail to pass constitutional muster. When the measure comes up for a vote in the House Environmental Matters Committee, it should be killed.Maryland's attorney general says the most recent effort is unconstitutional on several grounds. It is a back-door attempt by abortion opponents to chip away at the legal right of a woman to have the procedure in this state.Abortion decisions are best left to a woman and her physician.

The Maryland Senate voted yesterday to ban a late-term abortion procedure, the first time either chamber of the General Assembly has approved a major abortion restriction since the U.S. Supreme Court's 1973 Roe vs. Wade decision.The 25-22 vote sends the measure to the House, where another close vote is expected if the issue reaches the floor.Gov. Parris N. Glendening has pledged to veto the legislation because it does not include an exception to allow the procedure -- termed "partial-birth abortion" by opponents -- to protect a mother's health.