Bush signs ban on late-term abortion
Nebraska judge raises constitutional questions
Wednesday, November 5, 2003 Posted: 2017 GMT ( 4:17 AM HKT)
WASHINGTON (AP) -- President Bush signed legislation Wednesday banning a certain type of abortion, handing the disputed procedure's opponents a long-sought victory even as a federal judge at least partially blocked the new law from taking effect.
"For years, a terrible form of violence has been directed against children who are inches from birth while the law looked the other way," Bush said as he signed the ban on a procedure called partial-birth abortion by its critics. "Today at last the American people and our government have confronted the violence and come to the defense of the innocent child."
The White House staged the ceremony, before about 400 cheering lawmakers and abortion opponents, at a federal building named for former President Ronald Reagan, a strong supporter of anti-abortion groups. An "Amen" was heard from the audience as Bush sat down at a desk, before a row of American flags, to sign the bill passed last month by Congress.
But less than an hour after Bush put his pen to paper, a federal judge in Nebraska sharply questioned the law's constitutionality and issued a limited temporary restraining order against it. U.S. District Judge Richard Kopf said he was concerned that the ban contains no exception if the woman's health is at risk as he issued an injunction applied only to the four doctors who brought the suit.
We all knew this was coming, there will be challenges in the courts and someone with deep pockets will take it to the Supremes, whose record is to overturn if it doesn't include exceptions for both the health and the life of the woman. But here's the line that really fried my a**:
"....the president declared himself pleased to sign legislation he said would help him and others "build a culture of life" in America."
That's Catholic language and what it means is eliminating both abortion AND the death penalty. And we know how W feels about the death penalty. He likes it, he really, really likes it.