Sunday, May 07, 2000
Ky. awaits abortion decision
Ruling may affect state law
By Susan Vela
The Cincinnati Enquirer
Northern Kentucky legislators are paying close attention to the U.S. Supreme Court debate over abortion.
They're especially eager for a ruling on Stenberg vs. Carhart, which stems from a Nebraska law banning a late-term procedure that opponents call “partial-birth” abortion.
The nation's highest court recently heard the case, and justices are expected to announce a decision in late June. The outcome could affect similar laws in about 30 other states, including Kentucky.
“Obviously, the Supreme Court's ruling will be controlling on Kentucky as well as Nebraska,” said state Rep. Tom Kerr, D-Taylor Mill, who practices law.
Like most Kentucky legislators, Mr. Kerr opposes abortion.
He is concerned about what transpired April 25, when six of the nine U.S. Supreme Court justices questioned the Nebraska law. Mr. Kerr says Nebraska and Kentucky legislators used similar language when drafting their legislation.
“The only real difference is they use "unborn child' where we use "fetus,'” he said.
Opponents of the procedure, which is performed in the last three months of pregnancy, also have called it “infanticide.” The procedure dilates the cervix so the fetus travels into the vagina feet first. A physician then punctures and suctions the brain to collapse the cranium.
“It's about a grisly and inhumane procedure. I don't think people would allow such a thing happen to animals,” said Rep. Katie Stine, R-Fort Thomas. “There's a legitimate state interest.”
The Kentucky General Assembly voted to ban such abortions in 1998, following years of lobbying by Kentucky Right to Life. U.S. District Judge John G. Heyburn ruled the law unconstitutional, which prompted the Kentucky Attorney General's Office to file an appeal now pending in the 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals.
Indiana legislators also have approved a ban, which exempts women whose lives depend on the procedure. It has gone unchallenged. Ohio Gov. Bob Taft is expected to sign a similar bill within the next two weeks. It will be the General Assembly's second attempt in five years to ban such abortions.
Congress members also have pushed for a ban on such abortions.
“These laws have a definite potential to put impact on the right to choose,” said Beth Wilson, head of the reproductive freedom project of the American Civil Liberties Union. “From our perspective, it's an abortion ban.”
As for Kentucky's appeal, she doesn't expect the 6th Circuit to make any decisions until the U.S. Supreme Court has ruled.
At the April hearing, Justices Sandra Day O'Connor and Anthony M. Kennedy indicated concerns that the Nebraska law is too sweeping.
Simon Heller, an attorney for the New York-based Center for Reproductive Law and Policy, represented Dr. LeRoy Carhart in the Nebraska case. He said the law would erode Roe vs. Wade, the 1973 decision that legalized abortion.
Justice Antonin Scalia, who is one of three justices considered to oppose abortions, questioned Mr. Heller.
“You're saying there is no interest in the state with the destruction of a human life (emerging) from a womb?” he said. “You're saying the state has no interest at all in that?”
Sen. Dick Roeding, R-Lakeside Park, has faith that Nebraska's law will be upheld.
“I don't know how anyone in the judicial system can condone what most people consider murder,” he said. “I do believe in the long run Roe vs. Wade will be overturned.”
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