Law Commons^™

Federally Mandated Informed Consent: Has Government Gone Too Far?, Linda P. Mckenzie

Linda P. McKenzie

In 2003, President George W. Bush signed legislation targeted at preventing what lawmakers said was a single, specific abortion procedure. The bill banned a method that is known outside of the medical community as "partial birth abortion." Lower courts, however, struck down the law as a violation of the Supreme Court's requirement that state limits on abortion must include an exception for the life or health of the pregnant woman. The lower courts were upheld by the three circuit courts who reviewed the Partial Birth Abortion Ban Act of 2003. The U.S. Supreme Court accepted certiorari and recently heard oral …