Media Center: Federal Abortion Ban History

The federal abortion ban has a long and complex history. During the Clinton administration, anti-choice legislators tried to pass the federal abortion ban—a nationwide ban on certain abortion methods—but President Clinton vetoed it twice.

In 2003, Congress resurrected the federal abortion ban, and President George W. Bush signed it into law. Immediately, the ban was challenged in three federal courts in the cases Carhart v. Ashcroft, National Abortion Federation v. Ashcroft, and Planned Parenthood v. Ashcroft. In each case, the federal court held that the abortion ban was unconstitutional.

In the summer of 2004, U.S. Attorney General John Ashcroft asked the U.S. Court of Appeals to review the three cases, a task later taken up by his successor, Alberto Gonzales. In 2005 and 2006, the Court of Appeals heard the cases and ruled that the federal abortion ban was unconstitutional. In the Planned Parenthood v. Gonzales case (formerly Planned Parenthood v. Ashcroft), the Court of Appeals specified that the ban was unconstitutional because it failed to protect women’s health, posed an undue burden on women, and was too vague.

At the urging of Attorney General Gonzales, the Supreme Court agreed to review the Carhart and Planned Parenthood cases. In November 2006, the Supreme Court heard oral arguments for the two cases. In April 2007, the Court upheld the federal abortion ban, striking down numerous lower court decisions that declared the ban unconstitutional.