WASHINGTON, Nov. 8 (UPI) -- U.S. Supreme Court justices Wednesday questioned lawyers on both sides of the legal battle over a federal ban on what opponents call partial-birth abortions.
"In how many of those instances is there serious health risk to the mother that requires the procedures as opposed to simply being an elective procedure?" Justice Anthony Kennedy asked.
Kennedy also asked if a ban on the procedures might put some women at extra risk, The Wall Street Journal reported.
Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg asked if the claim these types of abortions were particularly gruesome could also apply to common abortions in the second trimester.
"I don't think so, Justice Ginsburg," Solicitor General Paul Clement said in response.
At issue is the 2003 Partial-Birth Abortion Ban Act, which abortion-rights groups immediately challenged because it did not contain an exception if the health of a woman was at stake as required by earlier Supreme Court precedents, the Journal said.
