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Bioethics Keyed to Clark, 9th Ed.
Gonzales v. Carhart
Citation:
550 U.S. 124, 127 S. Ct. 1610, 167 L. Ed. 2D 480 (2007)Facts
The Partial-Birth Abortion Ban Act of 2003 prohibits a specific abortion procedure known as intact dilation and extraction (intact D&E), in which a doctor partially delivers a living fetus to certain anatomical landmarks before performing an act that kills the fetus. Congress passed this law after the Supreme Court’s decision in Stenberg v. Carhart (2000), which struck down a similar Nebraska state law. Unlike the Nebraska law, the federal Act includes more precise language defining the prohibited procedure and contains specific congressional findings that the procedure is never medically necessary. The Act includes an exception to save a woman’s life but does not contain an exception for preserving a woman’s health. Doctors who perform second-trimester abortions challenged the constitutionality of the Act in federal courts, arguing it imposed an undue burden on women seeking abortions, was unconstitutionally vague, and violated precedent requiring a health exception. The district courts and courts of appeals agreed with the doctors and enjoined enforcement of the Act. The Supreme Court granted certiorari to resolve the constitutional questions.
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