US President George W. Bush on Wednesday signed into law a legislation that bans a certain procedure of abortion.

The law, passed by the House and Senate late last month, forbids an abortion in which a fetus is partially delivered before being killed. The procedure, which is called partial-birth abortion by its critics and generally performed in the second or third trimester, usually involves puncturing the fetus' skull.

"For years, a terrible form of violence has been directed against children who are inches from birth while the law looked the other way," Bush said at the signing ceremony.

"Today at last the American people and our government have confronted the violence and come to the defense of the innocent child," he said.

Supporters of the law said it applies only to a procedure done late in pregnancy and that the procedure is never necessary to protect the health of the mother, while opponents believed the law could criminalize several safe and common procedures and feared it would become the first step to eventually bar all abortions.

(Xinhua News Agency November 6, 2003)