By Becky Wildman-Tobriner

When Federal District Court Judge Phyllis J. Hamilton declared the Partial-Birth Abortion Ban Act of 2003 unconstitutional June 1, women's rights advocates celebrated, and San Franciscans had reason to be especially proud.

The city had signed on as a co-plaintiff in Planned Parenthood et. al v. Ashcroft, challenging the U.S. attorney general. It's unusual for a city to be part of cases like this one, but as Matt Dorsey, press secretary for City Attorney Dennis Herrera, told the Bay Guardian, "it's the kind of city we are."

San Francisco has been a longtime national leader on civil rights, including rent control, domestic partnership, and same-sex marriage. Plaintiffs in the case argued that the Republican-generated legislation represented probably the most serious assault on reproductive rights in a generation.

"I wanted to make sure San Francisco stayed at the forefront to ensure that they had the ability to get medical and counseling services that they need and deserve," Herrera told us.

The 117-page decision highlights that the law is unconstitutional because it violates a woman's ability to choose a safe second-trimester abortion and fails to provide an exception for the health of the mother. The ruling applies to about 900 Planned Parenthood clinics and their doctors, who perform about half the 1.3 million abortions each year nationwide, as well as to San Francisco General Hospital, which has the only public abortion clinic in the city. The case will likely be appealed to the U.S. Supreme Court.

Erin Kiernon, communications manager at Planned Parenthood Golden Gate, told us the city signed onto the case in order to protect public clinic patients after Planned Parenthood filed the suit and laid the initial groundwork. As Dorsey noted, San Francisco is "a good partner to have in a lawsuit when the going gets tough."

PPGG chief medical officer Dr. Maureen Paul, who testified during the case, said in a prepared statement: "Now that this dangerous and harmful ban has been declared unconstitutional, I can stop worrying about politicians looking over my shoulder – or into our clients' medical records – and I can get back to taking care of the women we serve at Planned Parenthood Golden Gate."