Public Law No: 108-105 (11/05/2003)

(This measure has not been amended since the Conference Report was filed in the House on September 30, 2003. The summary of that version is repeated here.)

Partial-Birth Abortion Ban Act of 2003 – Amends the Federal criminal code to prohibit any physician or other individual from knowingly performing a partial-birth abortion, except when necessary to save the life of a mother whose life is endangered by a physical disorder, illness, or injury.

Defines a “partial-birth abortion” as an abortion in which the person performing the abortion: (1) deliberately and intentionally vaginally delivers a living fetus until, in the case of a head-first presentation, the entire fetal head is outside the mother’s body, or, in the case of a breech presentation, any part of the fetal trunk past the navel is outside the mother’s body; and (2) performs the overt act, other than completion of delivery, that kills the partially delivered living fetus.

Authorizes the father, if married to the mother at the time of the abortion, and the maternal grandparents of the fetus, if the mother is under 18 years of age, to obtain specified relief in a civil action, unless the pregnancy resulted from the plaintiff’s criminal conduct or the plaintiff consented to the abortion.

Authorizes a defendant accused of an offense under this Act to seek a hearing before the State Medical Board on whether the physician’s conduct was necessary to save the life of the mother.

Prohibits the prosecution of a woman upon whom a partial-birth abortion is performed for conspiracy to violate this Act or under provisions regarding punishment as a principal or an accessory or for concealment of a felony.

1797 – “Old Ironsides,” the U.S. Navy frigate Constitution, was launched in Boston’s harbor.

1805 – The Battle of Trafalgar occurred off the coast of Spain. The British defeated the French and Spanish fleet.

1849 – The first tattooed man, James F. O’onnell, was put on exhibition at the Franklin Theatre in New York City, NY.

1865 – George William Gordon,a Jamaican national hero,is unfairly arrested and sentenced to death blackfacts.com

1872 – John H Conyers, The first African American to enter the US Naval Academy Blackfacts.com

1879 – Thomas Edison invented the electric incandescent lamp. It would last 13 1/2 hours before it would burn out.

1917 – The first U.S. soldiers entered combat during World War I near Nancy, France.

1918 – Margaret Owen set a typing speed record of 170 words per minute on a manual typewriter.

1925 – The photoelectric cell was first demonstrated at the Electric Show in New York City, NY.

1925 – The U.S. Treasury Department announced that it had fined 29,620 people for prohibition (of alcohol) violations.

1927 – In New York City, construction began on the George Washington Bridge.

1944 – During World War II, the German city of Aachen was captured by U.S. troops.

1945 – Women in France were allowed to vote for the first time.

1950 – Chinese forces invaded Tibet.

1959 – The Guggenheim Museum was opened to the public in New York. The building was designed by Frank Lloyd Wright.

1967 – Thousands of demonstrators marched in Washington, DC, in opposition to the Vietnam War.

1980 – Valerie Thomas invented the illusion transmitter. BlackFacts.com

1983 – The Pentagon reported that 2,000 Marines were headed to Grenada to protect and evacuate Americans living there.

1986 – The U.S. ordered 55 Soviet diplomats to leave. The action was in reaction to the Soviet Union expelling five American diplomats

1989 – Bertram M. Lee and Peter C.B. Bynoe sign an agreement to purchase the National Basketball Association’s Denver Nuggets for $54 million. They become the first African American owners of a professional basketball team.  BlackFacts.com

1991 – Jesse Turner, an American hostage in Lebanon, was released after nearly five years of being imprisoned.

1993 – The play “The Twilight of the Golds” opened.

1994 – In 1960, Charles Edward Anderson earned a Ph.D. in Meteorology from Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Boston, Massachusetts. Charles Edward Anderson the first African American to earn a Ph.D. in Meteorology; died today. blackfacts.com

1994 – North Korea and the U.S. signed an agreement requiring North Korea to halt its nuclear program and agree to inspections.

1998 – The New York Yankees set a major league baseball record of 125 victories for the regular and postseason combined.

1998 – Cancer specialist Dr. Jane Henney became the FDA’s first female commissioner.

2003 – The U.S. Senate voted to ban what was known as partial birth abortions.

2003 – North Korea rejected U.S. President George W. Bush‘s offer of a written pledge not to attack in exchange for the communist nation agreeing to end its nuclear weapons program.