The Supreme Court Oct. 10 declined to hear the appeal of Sandra Cano, the Georgia woman who hoped the court would reverse her 1973 victory in one of two decisions that legalized abortion.

Cano was the "Mary Doe" in the court's Doe v. Bolton, the companion case to the better known Roe v. Wade decision. Roe threw out most state restrictions on abortion, but the Doe decision permitted abortions through all nine months of pregnancy.

Without comment, the court rejected Cano's appeal of the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruling in January that said federal district and appeals courts lacked authority to overturn the decision in Doe or in Roe.

In petitioning the court, Cano's attorneys argued that although medical science and technology have advanced, by refusing to reconsider the validity of the Roe and Doe cases, the Supreme Court has "frozen abortion law based on obsolete 1973 assumptions and prevented the normal regulation of the practice of medicine."

Like the original plaintiff in Roe v. Wade --- Norma McCorvey was later identified as "Jane Roe" in the 1973 case --- Cano has said she never really wanted an abortion, but that attorneys looking for test cases about abortion laws pressed her into proceeding. McCorvey and Cano have both become outspoken abortion opponents.

The Supreme Court last directly addressed what it called the "essential holding" of Roe in 1992, reaffirming Roe's key provisions. Since then, the makeup of the court has changed. Only three justices who were in the majority in the 1992 case, Planned Parenthood of Southeastern Pennsylvania v. Casey, remain.

Chief Justice John Roberts just completed his first year on the court, after replacing the late Chief Justice William Rehnquist. Justice Samuel Alito joined the court earlier this year, replacing retired Justice Sandra Day O'Connor. Justices Stephen Breyer and Ruth Bader Ginsburg also have been appointed to the court since 1992.

They were both on the court earlier in 2005, however, when the court rejected a similar petition from McCorvey.

Both Cano's and McCorvey's appeals asked the court to reconsider their cases under a federal court rule that allows relief from a judgment because there is new evidence or the previous decision "is no longer equitable."

Meanwhile, the Supreme Court is scheduled Nov. 8 to hear oral arguments in two cases challenging the federal ban on partial-birth abortion. In the cases --- Gonzales v. Carhart and Gonzales v. Planned Parenthood --- the 8th and 9th U.S. Circuit Courts of Appeals, respectively, said the 2003 federal law banning partial-birth abortion was unconstitutional.

The U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops is among the organizations that filed amicus, or friend-of-the-court, briefs urging the high court to uphold the ban and use the cases to reverse Roe.

To raise awareness about the partial-birth abortion cases, pro-life leaders launched a campaign titled "Supreme Court Countdown: Partial-Birth Abortion" to "help remind the public and our elected officials how much is at stake," said Deirdre McQuade, director of planning and information for the U.S. bishops' Secretariat for Pro-Life Activities.

Each weekday leading up to the oral arguments, the campaign --- part of the Second Look Project --- was sending a fact or quote on partial-birth abortion to Congress, news media and opinion leaders.

---CNS