Word: fetus
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...statute applies only to the D&X procedure. However, Dr. Leroy Carhart argues--and a lower court agreed--that the law as written could be interpreted as including the D&E procedure. And, according to Carhart, even in first-trimester procedures "fetal elements" sometimes enter the vagina before the fetus is dead, meaning that zealous prosecutors could use the law against doctors performing virtually any abortion. In fact, the Nebraska legislature passed up opportunities to more narrowly define the law to include only D&X, which abortion-rights have interpreted as an attempt to target a wider range of procedures...
...Casey, the court also said that states could pass laws regulating abortion only to protect a woman's health or to save the life of a viable fetus. "Whatever this ban does, it surely can't be urged that it serves either [purpose]," Justice Ruth Bader Ginsberg said. "This law doesn't serve the health of the woman. It doesn't serve the life of the fetus." By prohibiting the D&X procedure, which has been recognized as a better alternative in some cases, the law would be detrimental to a woman's health. The Nebraska statute allows for exceptions...
...Nebraska law does not make sense on a number of grounds, both legal and moral. The state appears to feel that it is taking a stand against infanticide by trying to ban a procedure that removes the fetus intact while implicitly supporting one that removes it in pieces. As Justice O'Connor told Mr. Stenberg, "Both [D&X and D&E] are rather gruesome procedures." Therefore, it seems that were the state to target one, it should logically target the other...
Unquestionably, the viability of the fetus is far more important than its location in the body. Were states permitted to ban all procedures that kill the fetus, "it would authorize them to prohibit all abortions," Heller said...
...Justice Ginsberg concluded, the law is "out of the bounds this court has set for legitimate pre-viability regulation." Because it does not benefit the woman or the viable fetus, the law is both incompatible with court precedent and nonsensical...