President Bush signed the ban on partial-birth abortion in November, but now our second legislature--the federal judiciary--is deciding whether to accept or veto it.

* President Bush signed the ban on partial-birth abortion in November, but now our second legislature--the federal judiciary--is deciding whether to accept or veto it. The abortion lobby is challenging the ban in three federal courtrooms. Bush's Justice Department is defending it. Even the pro-abortion witnesses are helping to make the case for the law. In a New York courtroom, a judge got one abortionist to admit that he could not "think of a circumstance that would require [a partial-birth abortion] for maternal health conditions." The law's opponents are left arguing that since partial-birth abortion is not a distinct medical procedure, laws against it will end up outlawing other abortions as well. This claim contradicts their other argument, that partial-birth abortion is a (distinctly) "safer" procedure than the others. Besides, courts are perfectly capable of restraining overzealous prosecutors should any come to them. This law will stand if the courts behave as courts, rather than as activists.