Death Knell
I think ‘Supreme Count Upholds Ban on Abortion Procedure’ says it all.
The NYT just filed the story 10 minutes ago, so PP and Naral don’t have anything yet. Presumably, they’re going to need time to formulate their responses. Nothing from the ACLU. Neither does Feministing.
Kennedy sided with the majority. I can’t believe it. Kennedy is my ‘Church of the Lukumi Babalu-Aye vs. City of Hialeah’ savior - the go to guy.
This is going to be really bad.
The outcome is likely to spur efforts at the state level to place more restrictions on abortions.
More than 1 million abortions are performed in the United States each year, according to recent statistics. Nearly 90 percent of those occur in the first 12 weeks of pregnancy, and are not affected by Tuesday’s ruling.
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.
Really bad. I hate to sound like a doomsday prognosticator, but this doesn’t bode well for any ruling via further action in South Dakota and any of the other states that will try outright bans now.
Something like only 40% percent of women in my age bracket think abortion rights are something worth fighting for, are important. When the rest of these cards fall, it won’t be women like me and the ones that read this blog that suffer. It’ll be working-class women 200 miles from a clinic that have to take three days off work and pay for a hotel because of waiting periods. It’s poor young girls who don’t have the savvy to speak in front of a judge. It’s going to be the poor and the disadvantaged and America will continue this insane backward slide against women’s rights.
Oop, Feministing just blogged. They’re right.
From SCOTUSblog:
Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, speaking out in the courtroom for the dissenters, called the ruling “an alarming decision” that refuses “to take seriously” the Court’s 1992 decisions reaffirming most of Roe v. Wade and its 2000 decision in Stenberg v. Carhart striking down a state partial-birth abortion law.
Ginsburg, in a lengthy statement, said “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.” She said 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. A decision of the character the Court makes today should not have staying power.”
I bet she really misses Sandra Day O’Connor now. Me too. Fuck, I’m going to bed.
More from the AP:
Kennedy’s dissent in 2000 was so strong that few court watchers expected him to take a different view of the current case.
Kennedy acknowledged continuing disagreement about the procedure within the medical community. In the past, courts have cited that uncertainty as a reason to allow the disputed procedure.
But Kennedy said, “The law need not give abortion doctors unfettered choice in the course of their medical practice.”
He said the more common abortion method, involving dismemberment, is beyond the reach of the federal ban.
While the court upheld the law against a broad attack on its constitutionality, Kennedy said the court could entertain a challenge in which a doctor found it necessary to perform the banned procedure on a patient suffering certain medical complications.
Another Update: The American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists is a place to look for a statement as well. They filed an amicus brief with the Court noting that it is sometimes the safest procedure for women.
Another (I lied about the bed thing. It’s only 1:15… who’s tired): Dan Savage:
One of the liberals “pitted against” the conservative majority on the court—John Paul Stevens—turns 87 on April 20th. George W. Bush has 642 days left in office. Pray for Stevens. Another Bush appointment to the US Supreme Court would be a disaster for women, gays, minorities, prisoners, “enemy combatants,” and the environment.
In addition to praying for Stevens, anyone that cares about the rights of women, gays, minorities, etc., needs to register to vote, get behind a Democratic candidate, write checks, support the Democratic nominee whoever that person is, vote next November and make sure all your friends do the same. No pouting if your preferred candidate doesn’t get the nomination. And no squandering votes on third-party candidates.
Amen.
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