Washington D.C., May 22, 2008 / 12:03 pm
The U.S. Court of Appeals of the 4th Circuit on Tuesday for a second time declared unconstitutional a Virginia law banning partial-birth abortions, saying the law is more restrictive than a federal ban approved by the U.S. Supreme Court last year.
The appellate court has never allowed Virginia’s Partial Birth Infanticide Act of 2003 to take effect, but the Supreme Court ordered the court to reexamine the law in light of the high court’s decision in Gonzales v. Carhart, the Washington Post reports.
The Virginia law bans “intact dilation and extraction” abortions, which are used after about 12 weeks into a pregnancy.
In a standard dilation and extraction (D&E) abortion, the unborn child is dismembered in the womb. In an intact D&E abortion, the unborn child is partially delivered and its skull is crushed to make its removal easier.