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Pro-Life Update The U.S. Supreme Court has had and will continue to have great influence
over the lives of Americans. When the Court decided that abortion was
legally protected throughout a woman’s entire pregnancy, the justices
opened the door to even the grotesque partial-birth abortion procedure.
Most Americans now recognize the brutality of the procedure, and many
states have tried to ban it, but the ban has been deemed unconstitutional.
The high court has just agreed to review an appeal to the federal Partial-Birth
Abortion Ban Act, which was passed and signed into law by President
Bush in 2003. With two new strict constructionist justices, Pro-Lifers
are optimistic that this ban will be determined constitutional. One
reason for such optimism is that in a case recently heard by the court,
the justices allowed abortion opponents to continue to protest outside
abortion clinics. This ruling protects all protesters and thus garnered
the support of even the AFL-CIO and other activist groups. Finally,
new research shows why we must continue to fight for an end to abortion:
women who abort have a much higher suicide rate.
In 2003, the U.S. Congress approved this partial-birth abortion law, and President Bush signed it. Three federal courts of appeals then ruled that the new law conflicts with the 2000 Stenberg v. Carhart decision, which struck down Nebraska’s partial-birth abortion ban because the ban did not include a health exception. This ruling rendered unenforceable the similar bans that had been enacted in more than half the states in the U.S. Pro-Life and pro-choice advocates are watching the U.S. Supreme Court carefully. Currently, five of the nine justices have voted in favor of Roe v. Wade, two have voted to overturn it, and two have not yet voted on the matter. Justice Kennedy, however, although he voted to uphold Roe v. Wade¸ also voted to allow Nebraska to ban partial-birth abortion in the 2000 case. This vote is very important for the Pro-Life movement as the ruling could either end the brutal practice or set a firm precedent for abortion in our country.
Writing for the majority, Justice Stephen Breyer explained that Congress did not want to create a “freestanding physical violence offense” in the federal extortion law known as the Hobbs Act. The Court reiterated an earlier ruling that said state laws were sufficient to prosecute minor violations, such as trespassing. Interestingly, Pro-Life advocates were working alongside the AFL-CIO and other social activists not usually aligned with the Pro-Life movement to fight NOW’s charges. These other groups were worried that this decision could keep them from changing public policy or fighting for better wages and working conditions.
Another study conducted in California examined the death records of 173,000 women by looking at medical payments regarding birth and abortion. This study, conducted by David Reardon of the Elliot Institute, found that there was a 62 percent higher chance of death for aborting women than delivering women over the eight-year period of the study. The increase in deaths was due to suicides and accidents. As Reardon has noted in his studies, a strong link between suicide and abortion likely exists because the two are much alike. Both are a cry for help from people who are in despair. Some right-to-die groups think that suicide should be legalized and that clinics should be established to help ease people through their suicide decisions. Medical professionals, however, recognize that an attempt at suicide represents a need for support and counseling. “Women seeking abortions should be informed that abortion is associated with significant physical and mental health risks, and it also deprives them of numerous physical and mental health benefits associated with childbirth,” Reardon explained.
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