PA. PLANS TO ENFORCE LATE-ABORTION BAN - The Boston Globe (Boston, MA)

HARRISBURG, Pa. - Pennsylvania plans to enforce a ban onvirtually all abortions after 24 weeks of pregnancy.

At issue is Pennsylvania's restrictive abortion law, which islikely to be put to a test in a federal appeals court this yearand could ultimately reach the US Supreme Court.

US District Judge Daniel J. Huyett 3d overturned keyprovisions of the law last Friday, including requirements thatwomen notify their husbands if they want an abortion and thatminors get the consent of a parent, or a court, to have an abortion.

The American Civil Liberties Union and the Women's LawProject in Philadelphia said Wednesday that the ban on abortionsafter 24 weeks also was overturned.

However, Kate L. Mershimer, who argued the case for thestate, said the prohibition remained largely intact. The stateHealth Department has been instructed to enforce the ban.

Since few abortions in Pennsylvania each year take placeafter 24 weeks, the dispute would appear to carry relatively minorsignificance. But the issue could take on greater importance if itgoes to an appeals court.

The 24-week ban, which prohibits abortions except in cases inwhich a woman would face death or irreversible harm, was widelyviewed as a direct assault on Roe v. Wade, the 1973 Supreme Courtruling that established the right to an abortion.

That ruling said a woman's decision to have an abortionduring the first three months of pregnancy must be left to her andher doctor. It said states may interfere in the abortion decisionduring the second trimester only to protect the woman's health, andmay take steps to protect fetal life in the third trimester.

Twenty-four weeks falls near the end of the second trimester;proponents of a ban on abortions after 24 weeks say that a fetushas a good chance of surviving at that point in pregnancy.

Huyett's ruling, which is being appealed by the state,stemmed from a lawsuit filed by a group of doctors and clinics.

The lawsuit did not challenge the 24-week ban, but it cameinto play because Huyett overturned the law's definition for'medical emergency,' which appears in the section. JACONC;08/30 CORCOR;08/31,18:59 PENNSY31