Partial-birth infanticide

Judge hears testimony in St. Louis court to determine law's legality

By Jennifer Hartmann
Review Staff Writer

A judge heard testimony last week in St. Louis Circuit Court in a trial that will decide the legality of the partial-birth infanticide law here in Missouri.

Judge Robert H. Dierker Jr. heard the case between Planned Parenthood and the state of Missouri, which is represented by lead attorney Jordan Cherrick. The case will meet again on Monday, June 5.

The trial in St. Louis comes after U.S. District Judge Scott O. Wright of Kansas City, Mo., issued a temporary injunction on the law, the Infant’s Protection Act, shortly after it went into effect last September. That ruling follows a lawsuit Planned Parenthood filed in the federal district court in Kansas City, which challenged the constitutionality of the law.

Judge Wright set a new trial date for March 27, and he issued an injunction against the state judge preventing him from proceeding with a state case.

According to the Missouri Catholic Conference (MCC), a part of the federal-state court relationship is that a federal court should not invalidate a state statute without first giving the opportunity for the state courts to interpret the meaning of the law.

The Eighth Circuit Court of Appeals ruled against Judge Wright’s injunction preventing a state judge from hearing the case, which opened the way for a hearing in the Circuit Court in St. Louis. The law is currently in limbo while being contested in court in St. Louis.

ÏI think that the law is constitutional because it bans infanticide, which includes killing fully born children and partially born children,” state attorney Cherrick said in an interview with the Review last week. “Among the types of infanticide that are banned is the so-called partial-birth abortion procedure, which we do not think is necessary for use in traditional abortions.”

Lou DeFeo, general counsel and executive director of MCC, the public policy agency of the state’s bishops, said, “the law draws the line between infanticide and abortion. It draws that line at a point where the child’s navel or head is past the cervix,” he said. “And it’s saying in the state of Missouri, once a child has crossed that line, then the child is an infant.”

That infant, he said, has the same rights as an infant in a hospital nursery. “The court has never held using the concept of abortion to kill a child in the nursery.”

Among the testimony during last week’s trial in St. Louis, Judge Dierker heard descriptions of the partial-birth abortion procedure from Dr. Robert D. Crist, Planned Parenthood's chief abortion doctor.

Responding to recent media coverage on the issue, Auxiliary Bishop Joseph Naumann said, “Dr. Crist...admits that he has performed ‘many abortions’ in which he solved the problem of delivering an intact fetus with a beating heart by crushing the skull and/or dismembering the body. I doubt most Americans understand that our current public policy permits many such abortions.”

“What struck me with Dr. Crist was that there was absolutely no moral content to what he was saying,” said Samuel Lee, director of Campaign Life Missouri. “To him, it was a technical matter.”

Lee, who was present at the trial May 24 and 25, said the trial is waiting on at least two more pieces of evidence before it meets again on June 5.

Among the evidence is a videotape Lee said was made by Dr. Martin Haskell, who is “sort of the originator of this particular partial-birth abortion technique.” The video, Lee said, is supposed to show the actual procedure. “Mr. Cherrick has asked that this tape be requested by Judge Dierker, and viewed by the state court here.”