TRENTON, N.J. - The New Jersey
state Senate voted to ban controversial late-term abortions, overriding
an earlier veto by Gov. Christine Todd Whitman in the state's first restriction
on abortion in 24 years.
The Republican-controlled
senate voted 27-15 December 15 to override the veto by Whitman, the state's
recently re-elected moderate Republican governor. She earlier this
year conditionally vetoed a ban on the late-term abortions. The procedure
in question, technically known as intact dilation and extraction, is most
often used in the second trimester.
In its landmark Roe v. Wade
decision in 1973, the Supreme Court ruled that states may regulate but
not prohibit abortions in the second trimester. The ban is the state's
first restriction on abortion since the case, which granted women the right
to choose abortion.
Advocates of the ban say
the rarely used procedure is infanticide. In the procedure, a fetus is
partially removed from the uterus feet first, the fetal brain is suctioned
out and then the rest of the fetus is removed.
The American Civil Liberties
Union and Planned Parenthood said they would immediately challenge the
New Jersey law in the courts. The legislature rejected Whitman's offer
to sign an amended bill which would have exempted abortions performed to
protect the health of the mother.
The legislators insisted
on limiting the exception to cases where the mother's life was in danger,
a restriction Whitman would not accept. Proponents of the more stringent
version held that the "health" exception was too broad.
In a letter before the override
vote in the state assembly, Whitman said she regarded the strict ban to
be unconstitutional and expected a successful legal challenge.
She called the vote "a matter
of conscience," and not a break in party discipline. Republican leaders
have traditionally opposed abortion over the last 20 years. Whitman
had been regarded as a rising star in her party's moderate wing, but analysts
said her position on this issue, as well as her recent narrow reelection
over a little-known rival, might frustrate any national ambitions she might
have.
The New Jersey situation
is being played out on the national stage in the United States. Throughout
1995 and 1996, President Bill Clinton was locked in a heated battle with
Congress over partial birth abortion. Clinton has twice vetoed a ban on
the procedure, offering as a weak defence the need to protect the health
of pregnant women. This argument has been repeated deflated by medical
experts and pro-life workers who point out that there is no medical necessity
for partial birth abortion. Furthermore, the procedure is known to be much
more widely used than Clinton would have the nation believe.
- Reuters via Pro-Life
E-News Canada
