The Center for Reproductive Rights announced that if the so-called "partial-birth abortion" ban introduced today in the U.S. House of Representatives passes Congress and is signed into law by President Bush, as is expected, the organization will immediately go to court to block enforcement of the first federal abortion ban enacted since Roe v. Wade made abortion legal.

"The Supreme Court has already struck down this abortion ban, so it doesn’t matter how many times Congress passes it – it will remain unconstitutional. The Center for Reproductive Rights is prepared to take the Bush Administration to court the minute the law is passed," said Nancy Northup, president of the Center for Reproductive Rights.

Just three years ago, the Center for Reproductive Rights argued and won the case, Stenberg v. Carhart, in which the Supreme Court of the United States found this deceptive abortion ban to be an unconstitutional threat to women’s health and lives. The Supreme Court struck down the ban for two reasons: first, the ban would have prevented women from obtaining the safest methods of abortion; second, it lacked an exception in cases where the health of the mother was in jeopardy. The bill proposed today fails to remedy these flaws.

Although proponents of the ban claim that only "late-term" abortions would be prohibited, the Center’s legal and medical experts affirm that the ban would outlaw use of the safest and most common pre-viability abortion procedure used after the first trimester of pregnancy – dilation and evacuation (D&E) – just as the U.S. Supreme Court found in the Carhart decision striking down a similarly-worded state ban on abortion.

Added Northup, "This extreme ban would also effectively make irrelevant one of the most commonly used medical procedures to detect serious birth defects: amniocentesis. Women and their partners will still be able to use "amnio," but their options will be limited if the test identifies a serious birth defect because, under this law, the safest method of abortion in the second trimester of pregnancy would be illegal."

The House Bill was introduced by Congressman Steve Chabot (R-Ohio). It is expected that the ban will mirror the bill passed by the House of Representatives last July.