I cut and pasted this from the Planned Parenthood Myspace blog.
I am absolutely incensed!!!
"U.S. Supreme Court Upholds Federal Abortion Ban
It's a dark day for women's health and safety. In a serious setback for women across the country, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled on Wednesday in a 5–4 vote to uphold the federal abortion ban passed by Congress and signed by President Bush signed in 2003. The ban criminalizes abortions in the second trimester of pregnancy that doctors say are safe and the best to protect women's health.
Justice Kennedy wrote in the majority opinion that attorneys challenging the law "have not demonstrated that the Act would be unconstitutional in a large fraction of relevant cases." Translation: Politicians can make important medical decisions that ought to be made by doctors. Kennedy was joined in his opinion by Justices Alito, Roberts, Scalia, and Thomas. No surprises there.
Eve Gartner, deputy director of Litigation and Law at Planned Parenthood Federation of America, had argued one of the cases that challenged the ban — Gonzales v. Planned Parenthood. In a statement released by Planned Parenthood, she said:
"This ruling flies in the face of 30 years of Supreme Court precedent and the best interest of women's health and safety. Today the court took away an important option for doctors who seek to provide the best and safest care to their patients. This ruling tells women that politicians, not doctors, will make their health care decisions for them."
Justice Ginsburg, who was joined in her dissent by Justices Breyer, Souter, and Stevens, wrote:
"… the Court's opinion 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. For the first time since Roe, the Court blesses a prohibition with no exception protecting a woman's health. … [The federal ban] and the Court's defense of it cannot be understood as anything other than an effort to chip away at a right declared again and again by this Court — and with increasing comprehension of its centrality to women's lives. …"
Today is a dark day for women's health and safety. The court's decision unravels more than 30 years of Supreme Court rulings that said women's health must be protected from dangerous laws that restrict abortion.
Planned Parenthood is working to ensure that women are provided with the best and safest care under this dangerous law. You can get involved and help support that effort today."
