How are these cases different from the partial-birth abortion case of 2000?
• The new cases deal with a federal law passed by Congress, not a state law as in the Stenberg v. Carhart case of 2000. • The federal law defines the banned procedure differently and more precisely, responding to what the Supreme Court saw as a drafting flaw in the Nebraska law. • After years of hearings, Congress concluded that PBA is never “medically necessary” to preserve a woman’s health, and it included this and other factual findings in its ban. Under a longstanding practice of the federal courts, such factual findings are entitled to judicial deference. How did the courts of appeals rule on the federal PBA ban? Three federal appellate courts reviewed the federal partial-birth abortion ban: the United States Courts of Appeals for the Second, Eighth and Ninth Circuit, which sit in New York, St. Louis, and San Francisco, respectively. In all three cases, the courts invalidated the federal statute because it lacks a general “health” exception. One court, the Ninth Circuit, also conc
