Is the Federal Partial-Birth Abortion Ban Constitutional?

The Partial-Birth Abortion Ban Act was signed into law by President George W. Bush on November 5, 2003. The law prohibits doctors from performing intact dilation and extraction (D&X) abortion procedures and provided no exception to preserve the health of the mother. A group of four physicians brought suit against the Government, alleging that the ban was overly broad and the lack of a health exception made it invalid. A Federal district court ruled that the ban was unconstitutional, and on July 8, 2005, the Eighth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals concurred. The United States appealed to the U.S. Supreme Court, which granted certiorari to the case and to a similar one from the Ninth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals on February 21, 2006. President George W. Bush nominated Paul D. Clement to be solicitor general on March 14, 2005; Clement was confirmed by the Senate on June 8, 2005. Prior to that, he served as acting solicitor general since July 12, 2004. He is also an adjunct professor of constitutional law at Georgetown University. He received his law degree from Harvard University in 1994. The following is excerpted from the Brief for the Petitioner as submitted to the U.S. Supreme Court on May 22, 2006. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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