Chicago (AP) - In a victory for abortion opponents, a sharply divided federal appeals court Tuesday upheld laws banning certain late-term abortions in Illinois and Wisconsin. The ruling makes it likely that a similar Nebraska case will appear before the U.S. Supreme Court - the first time the issue has come before the court since it upheld Roe vs. Wade in 1992. "We conclude that both (states' abortion) laws can be applied in a constitutional manner," Judge Frank Easterbrook wrote in the majority opinion as the 7th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals split 5-4 over the issue. The court did say there was a possibility that bans on what critics describe as "partial-birth abortions" could be applied unfairly to prohibit other types of abortions but said lower courts should act to prevent that. In September, the 8th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals said a Nebraska law banning certain late-term abortions is so vague that it potentially bans all abortions. Nebraska Deputy Attorney General Steve Grasz said Tuesday's decision heightens the chance that the Nebraska case will be the first major abortion case heard by the U.S. Supreme Court since it upheld the Roe vs. Wade decision. Grasz said the Attorney General's Office is working on the state's petition asking the U.S. Supreme Court to consider the Nebraska case. "Now, however, we can focus on the split in the circuit court as an additional reason why the court should hear the case," Grasz said. Abortion-rights attorneys said they were deeply disappointed with the latest decision and indicated that they probably would appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court. "This decision creates a constitutional crisis which will probably go to the Supreme Court because it flies in the face of" the high court's previous decisions, said Janet Benshoff, president of the Washington-based Center for Reproductive Law and Policy. Susan Armacost, a lobbyist for Wisconsin Right to Life Inc., said the decision shoots down arguments that the law was vague and would apply to other types of abortion. "It is a huge victory for the babies of Wisconsin that would be facing this heinous procedure if it had not been upheld," she said. "It truly is a historic moment in the annals of pro-life history." Chief Judge Richard Posner, writing for the minority on the court, said the majority decision represented a compromise between the desire to ban the procedure and the fear that the laws would be enforced against other procedures that they were not meant to address. He said "the court does throw a bone to" those seeking to lift the bans by ordering lower courts to limit how they may be enforced. The Center for Reproductive Law and Policy says 30 states have passed similar laws and 20 states have been barred or at least sharply restricted by courts from enforcing them. The Nebraska Legislature passed its law banning partial-birth abortions in June 1997, but the law was immediately challenged in a lawsuit by Dr. LeRoy Carhart of Bellevue. In that case, U.S. District Judge Richard Kopf first temporarily and then permanently blocked the state from enforcing the law. The Nebraska Attorney General's Office appealed the decision to the 8th Circuit Court and argued its case in April in St. Louis. Grasz argued that other safe procedures were available to women and that the law was not an undue burden.
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