New challenge to abortion - 3 courts review ban on controversial procedure

Posted on Mon, Mar. 29, 2004

New challenge to abortion
3 COURTS REVIEW BAN ON CONTROVERSIAL PROCEDURE

By Howard Mintz
Mercury News

The legacy of Roe vs. Wade will loom over a San Francisco federal courtroom for the next three weeks, as abortion-rights advocates square off against the Bush administration in a constitutional challenge to a recent federal ban on what opponents call ``partial birth'' abortions.

The case, one of three unfolding in federal courts around the country starting today, is considered the most significant legal confrontation over abortion since the 1973 Roe decision, which established a woman's constitutional right to have an abortion.

Most legal experts believe the new federal law has little chance of survival but might be the tool that eventually gets the abortion-rights issue -- and Roe -- before the Supreme Court again.

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