Daily News-Miner: Sides Hold Firm on Abortion Bill, by Anne Sutton:
Critics of a bill banning partial-birth abortion say the real intentis to ban abortion altogether. It’s a claim sponsors of the measuredeny.
In a House debate on Tuesday, Rep. Wes Keller, R-Wasilla, said hisbill is specific to the rare medical procedure that is used toterminate late term pregnancies.
The bill is modeled after the federal abortion ban, which the Supreme Court upheld in Gonzales v. Carhart last year. But Alaska’s constitution provides stronger privacy protection than does the federal Constitution:
Rep. Beth Kerttula, D-Juneau, said the new language is vague enoughto encompass all first- and second-trimester abortions. And she doubtsit would survive [a] legal challenge, given the state’s strictconstitutional right to privacy.
A legal opinion from the Legislature’s own counsel agrees.