SCOTUS Upholds So-Called Partial Birth Abortion Ban
In a 5-4 conservative-liberal split, the Supreme Court ruled for the Bush Administration and against women's reproductive rights -- in Gonzales v. Carhart et al.
As expected, the conservative Justices said screw women's health. But this is what you get when you replace Sandra Day O'Connor with Samuel Alito. So much for a woman's right to choose. As Ginsberg signals, it can only get worse.
The decision departed from decades of precedent holding that "abortion restrictions cannot be imposed absent an exception safeguarding a woman's health."
Kennedy wrote the opinion. Ruth Bader Ginsberg -- the High Court's sole woman -- wrote the dissent. Ginsberg was joined by Breyer, Souter and Stevens. Thomas and Scalia wrote a brief concurring opinion. Shorter version: there is no mention of a woman or a woman's womb in the constitution!
In her scathing dissent, Justice Ginsberg wrote: "For the first time time since Roe, the court blesses a prohibition with no exception safeguarding a woman's health."
You can read the text here. I haven't read it yet, but I consider it a must-read.
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. . .
Six federal courts have said the law that was in focus Wednesday is an impermissible restriction on a woman's constitutional right to an abortion.
The law bans a method of ending a pregnancy, rather than limiting when an abortion can be performed.
''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.
Ginsburg said the latest decision ''tolerates, indeed applauds, federal intervention to ban nationwide a procedure found necessary and proper in certain cases by the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists.''
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