President Bush signed legislation banning late-term (“partial-birth”) abortions yesterday, although the new law was quickly blocked by a federal judge.

A federal judge in Nebraska blocked implementation of a federal ban on certain late-term abortions Wednesday, less than an hour after President Bush signed the ban into law.

U.S. District Judge Richard Kopf issued a temporary restraining order against the law after a three-hour hearing on a lawsuit in Nebraska brought by abortion-rights supporters.

He said his order would apply only to the four doctors who filed the lawsuit, but the ruling could extend beyond Nebraska because the physicians are licensed to practice in Alabama, Georgia, Iowa, New York, South Carolina and Virginia.
Kopf cited concerns that the law did not contain an exception for preserving the health of the woman seeking the abortion.

[. . .]

It was a challenge by one of the four doctors in the suit that led to the Supreme Court overturning Nebraska's so-called partial-birth abortion ban in 2000. The high court said the law and others like it passed by other states were an "undue burden" on women's rights. (via CNN)

The case will end up in the Supreme Court. But in the meantime, we can’t afford to have Bush making this decision for all American women. Yes, late-term abortions are even more controversial than early-term abortions. But what we have here is one of the slipperiest slopes around. And Bush, surrounded by his moral majority, just can’t wait to slide on down.

He has said that Justices Antonin Scalia and Clarence Thomas are his models for appointing a Supreme Court Justice, and that means (in addition to a number of other very scary things) that women are in serious jeopardy of losing control over their bodies if Bush is allowed to make an appointment.

We need to make sure he never gets the chance.