Supreme Court to take abortion case

Justices will consider federal ban on late-term, or so-called partial-birth, abortions.

Published February 21, 2006 3:29PM (EST)

We won't have to wait much longer to see if John Roberts and Samuel Alito still hold the antiabortion views they espoused as Justice Department lawyers: The Supreme Court has just announced that it will consider the constitutionality of the federal law outlawing late-term, or so-called partial-birth, abortions.

Sandra Day O'Connor provided the crucial fifth vote when the court reversed a state-law ban on the procedure in 2000. Since that time, three federal courts have said that the federal ban does not withstand constitutional scrutiny. The justices will hear the case in the court term that begins in October.


By Tim Grieve

Tim Grieve is a senior writer and the author of Salon's War Room blog.

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