Would the Pain Capable Unborn Children Protection Act Be Constitutional?

In November, a Federal District Court in Michigan held the Prohibition of Female Genital Mutilation Act of 1995 unconstitutional. The Court reasoned, in essence, that the Supreme Court's decisions in Lopez and Morrison meant that this sort of local activity could not be regulated by Congress pursuant to the Commerce Clause or any other enumerated power. This was true even though the case involved a prosecution of doctors who were paid to do the procedure by a family. While states were free to ban the practice, the federal government could not.My question is simple: If this opinion is correct, then would it not follow that a federal statute prohibiting a third trimester abortion under certain circumstances would also be invalid? I doubt that Congress can produce findings that third-trimester abortions have a demonstrable effect on interstate commerce any greater than female genital mutilation does.One response to this, of course, is that perhaps the District Court erred in…

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