The 5-4 decision written by Justice Anthony Kennedy said the Partial Birth Abortion Ban Act that Congress passed and President Bush signed into law in 2003 does not violate a woman's constitutional right to an abortion.
The law is constitutional despite not containing an exception that would allow the procedure if needed to preserve a woman's health, Kennedy said. "The law need not give abortion doctors unfettered choice in the course of their medical practice," he wrote in the majority opinion. Doctors who violate the law face up to two years in federal prison.
Of course Bush's reaction was that this is progress toward his administration's "sanctity of life" position. And joining the conservative majority decision were Bush's two new appointees Chief Justice John Roberts and Samuel Alito. No doubt they fell into party line, and this decision has the potential to make huge waves in overturning Roe v. Wade, giving conservatives the ultimate win and women the ultimate loss.
"Today's decision is alarming," Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg wrote in dissent. She said the ruling "refuses to take ... seriously" previous Supreme Court decisions on abortion.
Said Eve Gartner of the Planned Parenthood Federation of America: "This ruling flies in the face of 30 years of Supreme Court precedent and the best interest of women's health and safety. ... This ruling tells women that politicians, not doctors, will make their health care decisions for them." She had argued that point before the justices.
Obama said the decision is a dramatic departure from precedents safeguarding women's health. "I am extremely concerned that this ruling will embolden state legislatures to enact further measures to restrict a woman's right to choose, and that the conservative Supreme Court justices will look for other opportunities to erode Roe v. Wade, which is established federal law and a matter of equal rights for women," he said.
Likewise, Clinton and Edwards also denounced the decision. Guiliani, who has been back and forth on abortion, said he was happy with the decision.
2 comments:
What I don't understand is how Bush could be for the "sanctity of life". Tell that to our troops.
I wrote a post about this decision too. It is appalling. One interesting thing I discovered by looking on NARAL's Web site. There is something called the Freedom of Choice Act. It was introduced by Sen. Boxer and Rep. Nadler, and is aimed at securing the right to choose by establishing a federal law that will guarantee reproductive freedom for future generations of American women. There's an online message on the NARAL site that you can fill out with your information, and the message will be sent to your congresspeople asking them to support the Act. If Obama is serious about this decision being a dramatic departure from precedents, I would hope he'd support the Act.
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