Washington, D.C.
The Senate last week approved the first federal restrictions on abortion since 1973, when the Supreme Court made abortion legal. The bill outlaws so-called partial-birth abortion, a rare late-term procedure. The House is expected to pass the ban next month, and President Bush promised to sign it to help build “a culture of life in America.” The procedure is usually done in the fifth or sixth month of pregnancy, often when a doctor determines that the woman’s health is at risk. It involves partially extracting the fetus from the womb, crushing its skull, and siphoning out the brain. Abortion-rights groups vowed to challenge the restriction in court. “It directly inserts the government between a woman and her physician,” one activist said.
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