"We are profoundly disappointed with today's ruling which declares it unconstitutional to ban a procedure which kills an unborn child in the process of being delivered," said Gayle Atteberry, Executive Director of Oregon Right to Life.

Ms. Atteberry made her comment on today's news that U.S. District Judge Phyllis Hamilton declared unconstitutional the recently passed Congressional ban on the Partial Birth Abortion. While Judge Hamilton said that the ban was struck down because it lacked an exception to allow a partial birth abortion to protect a woman's health, the so-called "health exception" necessity was nullified during trial testimony. Dr. Curtis Cook, an OB/GYN and Michigan State University professor who specializes in high-risk pregnancies and pregnancies with complications, told the court during his testimony that he did not believe partial-birth abortions were ever medically necessary. Cook said the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologist have gone on record saying "there is no situation where they can think that this is the only option available."

The Partial Birth Abortion Ban was carefully written to overcome objections by an earlier Supreme Court ruling (Carhart vs. Stenberg) which said that previous bans were too "vague" in their description of the abortion procedure. The newly written ban carefully describes the procedure as one in which a baby is partially delivered alive-then is killed.