U.S. Appeals Court Overturns Guam’s Abortion Ban

A ban on nearly all abortions in the U.S. territory of Guam was overturned Thursday by a federal appeals court, which said Roe vs. Wade remains the law until the Supreme Court rules otherwise.

The law in the largely Roman Catholic territory would have made it a felony to perform any abortion except those needed to preserve a woman’s life or prevent grave danger to health, as certified by two independent doctors. The only other exception covered ectopic pregnancies--a dangerous, abnormal pregnancy that develops outside the uterus.

The law, in effect only four days before it was blocked by a federal judge in March, 1990, is one of several measures aimed at challenging the Supreme Court’s 1973 Roe vs. Wade ruling that proclaimed a woman’s right to an abortion.

Similar laws in Louisiana and Utah are being challenged in lower federal courts. A less-restrictive law in Pennsylvania has been accepted for argument by the Supreme Court next Wednesday and could result in the undermining or repeal of the 1973 decision.

The U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals said several recent high court rulings upholding state restrictions on abortions do not undermine the Roe decision.

Despite criticisms by individual justices, the Supreme Court itself has declined to overrule Roe vs. Wade, said Judge William Canby in the 3-0 ruling.

“It would be both wrong and presumptuous of us now to declare that Roe vs. Wade is dead,” the ruling said.