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On November 10, 2003, the Department of Justice urged a federal district judge in New York to adopt expedited procedures in reviewing a legal challenge to the Partial-Birth Abortion Ban Act. The Department asked the judge to "consolidate" two usually separate steps: A hearing on a request for a preliminary injunction against the law (filed by the American Civil Liberties Union on behalf of the National Abortion Federation), and a full trial on the merits on any factual issues pertaining to the law. If the judge grants the government's request, it would result in a trial in four months -- far faster than the year or more that would be common under non-expedited procedures. NRLC Legislative Director Douglas Johnson commented, "We commend the Bush Administration for pushing for expedited judicial review, in order to allow the ban on the brutal partial-birth abortion method to take effect as soon as possible. Every day that passes is another day that premature infants, mostly in the fifth and sixth months, will be mostly delivered alive before being painfully killed by the puncturing of their skulls and the removal of their brains." |