WASHINGTON (ABP) — In upholding a federal ban April 18 on a rare kind of late-term abortion procedure, the Supreme Court may have begun undermining its key abortion precedent.
Activists on both sides of the abortion issue greeted the court's 5-4 decision on “partial-birth” abortion as a possible turning point in the court's abortion jurisprudence.
“With today's Supreme Court decision, it is just a matter of time before the infamous Roe v. Wade decision in 1973 will also be struck down by the court,” said a press statement from Roberta Combs, president of the Christian Coalition of America.
James Tonkowich, president of the Institute on Religion and Democracy, agreed that the newest ruling begins chipping away at the landmark decision that legalized abortion nationwide by declaring the procedure constitutionally protected under a woman's right to privacy.
“Roe is no longer the dictator over the Supreme Court,” he said in a press statement. “This is a landmark ruling that slams the breaks on infanticide and the devaluing of human life.” Tonkowich's Washington-based group advocates right-wing social positions within mainline Protestant denominations.
Meanwhile, abortion-rights advocates seemed worried that Combs and Tonkowich were right.
Carlton Veazey, president of the Religious Coalition for Reproductive Choice, issued a statement saying his group was “alarmed that the court has taken a step toward valuing a potential person over the woman whose life may be at risk.” Lower federal courts had ruled against the abortion ban because it did not include an exception to protect the mother's health. The high court's previous abortion decisions dictated that such an exception must be part of any restriction on abortion rights.
Nancy Keenan, president of NARAL Pro-Choice America, said the ruling “shows Bush's appointees have moved the court in a direction that could further undermine Roe v. Wade and protections for women's health. The door is now open for politicians like George W. Bush to interfere even more in our personal, private medical decisions.”
Keenan referred to Bush's two recent appointees to the court — Chief Justice John Roberts and Justice Samuel Alito — who both voted with the 5-4 majority on the case. Alito's vote was pivotal because he replaced retired Justice Sandra Day O'Connor, who generally voted against restrictions on abortion.
In 2000, O'Connor was the deciding vote in a 5-4 decision that overturned a Nebraska law similar to the federal “Partial-Birth Abortion Ban Act of 2003.”
Abortion-rights opponents said Bush's election had finally paid a real dividend for their movement — after years of court appointments by ostensibly anti-abortion Republican presidents had failed to do the same.
“This decision is a powerful and timely reminder of the enormous significance of presidential elections and their pivotal impact on the makeup of the Supreme Court,” said Richard Land, head of the Southern Baptist Convention's Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission, in a statement on the ruling. “If Al Gore or John Kerry … had made the nominations to replace [O'Connor or late Chief Justice William Rehnquist], then this monstrous partial-birth abortion procedure would have likely been upheld by the highest court as constitutional in the land in a 6-3 vote ….”
NARAL's Keenan agreed: Bush's election may end up proving pivotal in the struggle over legalized abortion.
“The bottom line is clear: elections matter,” she said. “Indeed, this is a setback for all Americans who believe politicians should not make private, personal medical decisions for the rest of us.”
Veazey — whose group does not endorse abortion per se but does oppose legal impositions on what it considers a private moral and spiritual choice — said the ruling will open the doors to governmental imposition of religious viewpoints. “This decision moves us closer to the time when sectarian religious viewpoints will govern medical decisions for all Americans, whether they share those viewpoints or not,” he said.
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Divided court, in sweeping decision upholds 'partial-birth' abortion ban (4/18/2007)