Virginia’s ban on partial-birth abortions was struck down on August 10 because of the Supreme Court decision in Stenberg v. Carhart.

The ban on this gruesome procedure was passed by the Virginia General Assembly in 1998 and signed into law by Governor Gilmore. Pro-abortion interests quickly challenged the new law. Although U.S. District Judge Robert E. Payne found the law unconstitutional and issued a permanent injunction in July, 1999 barring its enforcement, the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals lifted the injunction two months later and ordered the law reinstated.

This time, however, the Appeals Court lifted its order and determined that the law must be judged unconstitutional in view of the June U.S. Supreme Court decision cited above. According to 4th Circuit Judge J. Michael Luttig, who had voted twice before to uphold the partial-birth abortion law, all of the state of Virginia’s arguments for upholding its law have been "foreclosed" by the Supreme Court decision.

Published in VSHL Lifesaver, October 2000