JURIST - Paper Chase: Supreme Court vacates Missouri partial birth abortion ban ruling

[JURIST] The US Supreme Court [official website; JURIST news archive] issued an order [PDF text] Monday that vacated a 2005 decision [PDF] by the US Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit striking down Missouri's 1999 "partial birth" abortion ban. After the Supreme Court's decision last week in Gonzales v. Carhart [Duke Law case backgrounder; JURIST report], the Eighth Circuit ruling was out of step with the Court's upholding of the federal Partial Birth Abortion Ban Act of 2003 [PDF text]. The Missouri case has been remanded to the Eighth Circuit. Missouri Attorney General Jay Nixon [official website] said he plans to appeal to the Circuit Court to vacate its injunction on the ban.

In Gonzales, the Court held that groups challenging the partial birth abortion ban [JURIST news archive] "have not demonstrated that the Act, as a facial matter, is void for vagueness, or that it imposes an undue burden on a woman's right to abortion based on its overbreadth or lack of a health exception." The 5-4 decision marked the first time the Court has upheld a complete ban on an abortion procedure. AP has more.

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