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Supreme Court strikes down controversial Nebraska abortion law

The Nebraska law, struck down today by the Supreme Court, was challenged by Dr. Leroy Carhart, one of the state's three abortion providers

June 28, 2000
Web posted at: 10:30 a.m. EDT (1430 GMT)

WASHINGTON (CNN) -- A divided Supreme Court struck down a Nebraska law banning a controversial abortion procedure.

The Nebraska case was the first major abortion dispute to come before the U.S. Supreme Court since 1992, when the court reaffirmed the landmark 1973 Roe v. Wade decision, which said the Constitution gives women the right to an abortion.

At issue in the case, Stenberg v. Carhart, was whether a 1997 Nebraska statute outlawing a procedure that critics call "partial birth" abortion illegally limits a woman's right to have an abortion.

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Doctors call the procedure, where the fetus is partially removed from the vagina and the skull collapsed, intact dilation and extraction.

The facts of the case

Nebraska appealed a lower-court ruling that struck down the state law.

Nebraska unsuccessfully argued that the law does not place an "undue burden" on a woman's right to choose. The 1992 Supreme Court decision in Planned Parenthood v. Casey gave states the power to impose some limits on abortion, though the limits could not impose an "undue burden."

In September, a federal appeals court struck down laws in Nebraska, Iowa and Arkansas banning the procedure, ruling the bans could apply to commonly used abortion procedures, thus limiting a woman's right to an abortion.

But in October, another appeals court upheld similar laws in Wisconsin and Illinois, saying the statutes could be narrowly enforced.

The Supreme Court agreed to take the case in large part because of the conflict between the two appeals courts.

Carhart's challenge

The Nebraska law was challenged by Dr. LeRoy Carhart, one of the state's three abortion providers and the only one who performed the controversial procedure.

Under the law, which has been blocked pending the Supreme Court ruling, a physician faced felony charges, including up to 20 years in prison, a $25,000 fine, or both, and lose his or her license.

Carhart said the ban was so broad that "it would criminalize 98 percent of the abortions in Nebraska today."

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U. S. 8th Circuit Court of Appeals 1999 decision

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