A decision by the Fourth Circuit on Friday may set the stage for the next test in the Supreme Court of the constitutionality of laws that ban so-called “partial birth” abortions. By a 2-1 vote, the Circuit Court nullified Virginia’s 2003 law seeking to outlaw that form of medical practice for terminating pregnancy. A strongly worded dissent by a conservative member of the Fourth Circuit panel, Circuit Judge Paul V. Niemeyer, could embolden Virginia state officials to take the case on to the Supreme Court – very likely reaching it ahead of other “partial birth” cases, now awaiting rulings in three federal circuit courts, that test the federal ban on such abortions.
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