Federal judge strikes down Idaho ban on late-term abortions

SALMON, Idaho (Reuters) - A federal judge on Wednesday struck down a 2011 Idaho law that banned most abortions after 20 weeks of pregnancy, ruling that the measure is unconstitutional.

Idaho is one of at least eight states that have enacted late-term abortion prohibitions in recent years based on controversial medical research suggesting that a fetus feels pain starting at 20 weeks of gestation.

Arkansas became the latest to enact such a measure on February 28 when the state Senate voted to join its lower house of the legislature in overriding a gubernatorial veto of it.

On Wednesday, the Republican-controlled Arkansas legislature overrode a separate veto by Democratic Governor Mike Beebe to enact the most restrictive abortion law in the United States - one banning the procedure after 12 weeks of pregnancy.

That law, the Arkansas Human Heartbeat Protection Act, will likely take effect in August, if it survives expected legal challenges.

Idaho's measure made it a felony to perform an abortion after 20 weeks unless there was proof the pregnancy endangered the woman's life.

Wednesday's decision by U.S. District Judge B. Lynn Winmill in Pocatello, Idaho, stems from a lawsuit marking one of the first federal court cases challenging such statutes.

The lawsuit was brought in September 2011 by then-33-year-old Jennie Linn McCormack, who according to prosecutors had terminated her own pregnancy at between 20 and 21 weeks using abortion pills she obtained from an online distributor.

Winmill previously ruled that McCormack had lacked legal standing to seek a temporary restraining order against the "fetal pain" law because she was no longer pregnant and could not demonstrate imminent harm from the statute.

But McCormack's attorney, Richard Hearn, who also is a physician, gained standing to challenge the 20-week cutoff for legal abortions himself.

He also challenged separate Idaho statutes that could penalize a woman if her abortion provider failed to meet state requirements about how and where abortions are performed and a third law that subjects providers to criminal charges under certain conditions.

On Wednesday, Winmill sided with Hearn and McCormack, ruling the statutes in question all infringed on a woman's right to terminate her pregnancy as established under the landmark 1973 U.S. Supreme Court decision legalizing abortion.

Referring to Idaho's 20-week abortion ban, Winmill wrote, "Here, an outright ban on abortions at or after twenty weeks' gestation places, not just a substantial obstacle, but an absolute obstacle, in the path of women seeking such abortions."

The 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals last August blocked a late-term abortion ban in Arizona from being enforced and agreed to an expedited review of that measure in a case that was argued before a three-judge panel in November. A decision is pending.

(Reporting by Laura Zuckerman; Editing by Steve Gorman and Eric Walsh)

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/federal-judge-strikes-down-idaho-ban-term-abortions-020506514.html

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