Wednesday, April 18, 2007

And So It Begins...

The reign of the conservative Supreme Court has begun. If President Bush, or subsequent conservative President, is able to appoint another Justice or two, we'll be in for 50 years of similar decisions. Think about that when you vote in 2008!

The Supreme Court upheld in a 5-4 ruling that the Partial Birth Abortion Ban Act of 2003 does not violate a woman's constitutional right to an abortion. Until now, six federal courts had said the law is an impermissible restriction on a woman's constitutional right to an abortion.

President Bush's two appointees, Chief Justice John Roberts and Justice Samuel Alito, siding with the conservative majority. It was the first time the court banned a specific procedure in a case over how — not whether — to perform an abortion. The outcome is likely to spur efforts at the state level to place more restrictions on abortions.

Alarmingly, more than 1 million abortions are performed in the U.S. each year. Nearly 90% of those occur in the first 12 weeks of pregnancy, and are not affected by the ruling.

Ruth Bader Ginsburg wrote the dissent, and she was joined by Justices Stephen Breyer, David Souter, and John Paul Stevens.
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3 comments:

michael sean morris said...

And yet somehow only judges appointed by Democrats are "activist". These are the same judges champing at the bit to criminalize homosexuality. They must be stopped.

Red Seven said...

When I was in high school, I was pro-life. When I came out at the age of 25, I decided that abortion would never really affect me, so I decided not to have an opinion one way or the other. Eleven years later, I'm fiercely pro-choice. If nothing else, it's a class issue; if abortion is ever criminalized, it won't stop the rich and famous from flying their teenage daughters over to Europe (i.e., civilization) to have their "problem," um ... "fixed." And the poor women of America will go back to back alleys and coat hangers.

Pete said...

But really are we surprised? Did we think they would do anything to the contrary? I guess you need to be loyal to those who put you in power.