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A federal judge ruled this week that a law banning so-called partial-birth abortion was unconstitutional. The law, passed last year, prohibited a form of late-term abortion in which a living fetus is partially removed from the womb and its skull crushed. President Bush has called the procedure a “terrible form of violence” against “children who are inches from birth.” But Judge Phyllis Hamilton, a Clinton appointee, ruled that “the act poses an undue burden on a woman’s right to choose an abortion.” She also said in a 120-page ruling that such abortions, contrary to a congressional finding, might sometimes be necessary to protect a woman’s health. Two other federal judges are considering separate challenges to the law, and the matter is expected to wind up before the Supreme Court.
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