A federal judge in San Francisco has ruled that a new ban on late term abortions is unconstitutional because it jeopardizes a women’s right to choose and because it could threaten the health of women who seek to end their pregnancies. The ruling was a major setback to the Bush administration and opponents of abortion who have expressed hope that the bill — officially known as the Partial Birth Abortion Ban Act — would become the first step toward making all abortions illegal. Planned Parenthood brought the suit against the Justice Department. The group’s President Gloria Feldt said on Tuesday “Today’s ruling is a landmark victory for medical privacy rights and women’s health. The Ashcroft Department of Justice can no longer threaten Planned Parenthood doctors with the daunting specter of criminal prosecution for putting their patients first.” The judge accused Congress of being “grossly misleading and inaccurate” when it referred to the banned procedure — which is known in the medical world as “intact dilation and extraction” — as “infanticide” President Bush’s re-election campaign issued a statement describing the judge’s decision as a “tragic ruling.”