Appeals court is asked to revisit measure on partial-birth abortion

LINCOLN, Neb. (AP) -- Twenty-six Republican members of Congress asked an appeals court Thursday to reinstate the Partial Birth Abortion Ban Act, struck down by a federal judge in September.
The House members sided with the U.S. Justice Department, saying in a friend-of-the-court brief that the government has a "vital and compelling interest in preventing the spread of the practice of abortion into infanticide."
At issue is a federal law banning a procedure doctors call intact dilation and extraction, or D & amp;X. Opponents call it partial-birth abortion. During the procedure, generally performed in the second trimester, a fetus is partly removed from the womb and its skull is punctured.
President Bush signed the ban last year, but it was not enforced because of challenges. U.S. District Judge Richard Kopf in Nebraska ruled in September that the ban is unconstitutional.