NEW YORK (CNN) -- A U.S. judge Thursday became the second in the nation to rule that a federal ban on a particular type of late-term abortion is unconstitutional.In his ruling on the law dubbed the Partial-Birth Abortion Ban Act, Judge Richard Conway Casey cited a high court ruling and a lack of exemption to protect the health of a woman.
My advice to the Religious Right: add the exemption to protect the mother. Bill Clinton promised for years to sign this bill if only the health of a mother was taken into consideration. GW Bush went ahead and a signed the bill regardless of the medical needs of women. And the courts have ruled he was wrong to do so.
No one wants late stage abortions to occur. The left and the right should be able to come to an agreement to ban the procedure except when doing so will harm or kill the mother. That would be a victory will all could live with. Under those rules there would be almost no late stage partial-abortions.
The only problem toward achieving this goal: partisan politics and religious fundamentalism. We have a lot of rivers to jump before reason takes over.
