La. outlaws 'dilation and extraction' abortion

BATON ROUGE, Louisiana-Louisiana became the first American state Friday to outlaw a controversial abortion procedure that involves partially removing the fetus intact from a woman's uterus, then crushing or cutting its skull to complete the abortion.
The new law allows the procedure in only one situation at any time during pregnancy: when failure to perform it would endanger the mother's life.The procedure would be a crime in all other cases, even if the pregnancy is expected to cause health problems for the mother.Anti-abortion activists call the procedure "partial-birth abortion;" surgeons and abortion rights activists call it "dilation and extraction."Democratic Gov. Kathleen Blanco signed into law criminal penalties for doctors who perform the surgery: fines of between $1,000 and $10,000, and jail terms of between one and 10 years.The statute is parallel to a federal ban that President George W. Bush signed into law in 2003, which was upheld in April by the U.S. Supreme Court.Lawmakers in other states are expected to consider similar bans. Louisiana is the first to enact one, according to the New York-based Center for Reproductive Rights, an abortion-rights group.Unlike in many developed countries, where abortion is considered a medical procedure beyond the reach of politics, it remains among the most politically sensitive subjects in the United States, and is likely to be a hotly debated issue through the campaign to the November 2008 U.S. presidential election, especially by conservative Republicans.
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