Ashcroft Defends Subpoenas [View All]

[Khephra]

Attorney General John Ashcroft rebuffed calls from Congressional Democrats and abortion rights groups on Thursday to drop the Justice Department's demands for abortion records from a half-dozen hospitals.

Mr. Ashcroft said the records were essential to the department's courtroom defense of a new law banning what he called "the rather horrendous practice of partial-birth abortions."

A group of doctors have sued to overturn the law, which was passed by Congress last November and signed by President Bush. They say they have performed medically necessary abortions that would now be banned.

Mr. Ashcroft told reporters that "if the central issue in the case, an issue raised by those who brought the case, is medical necessity, we need to look at medical records to find out if indeed there was medical necessity." He refused to say whether he had personally signed off on the subpoenas for the records.

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http://www.nytimes.com/2004/02/13/politics/13ABOR.html