Pro-life advocates throughout the country applauded the U.S. Supreme Court's decision April 18 to reject a legal challenge to the federal Partial-Birth Abortion Ban Act, which was first passed by Congress and signed into law by President George W. Bush in 2003.
In a statement released April 19 during their semi-annual conference in Sacramento, the California bishops called the Supreme Court ruling "an unqualified victory for life and for common sense."
"As Bishops," they declared, "we wholeheartedly welcome this significant decision which both reclaims the State's legislative prerogative to regulate actions affecting the common good and restates our society's interest in preserving life. We grieve for all who have been hurt by abortion and hope and pray for the day when no woman will want, or feel that she needs, to make such a choice."
The ruling --- involving the case Gonzales v. Carhart --- does not violate a woman's constitutional right to an abortion established by Roe v. Wade in 1973, but abortion-rights supporters say it opens the door for additional restrictions on doctors who perform abortions and the women who elect to have them.
Currently, according to a recent Los Angeles Times article, the partial-birth abortion procedure is used in less than 5,000 of the more than 1.3 million abortions performed annually in the U.S.
In an April 18 statement, Cardinal Justin Rigali of Philadelphia, chairman of the U.S. bishops' Committee on Pro-Life Activities, welcomed the partial-birth abortion ruling.
"We hope today's decision marks the beginning of a new dialogue on abortion, in which fair-minded consideration will be given to the genuine interests of unborn children and their mothers, to the need for an ethically sound medical profession, and to society's desperate need for a foundation of respect for all human life," said Cardinal Rigali.
Deirdre McQuade, director of planning and information for the U.S. bishops' Pro-Life Secretariat, told The Tidings in an April 23 phone interview that she was "heartened" by the court's 5-4 majority ruling.
"This is the first time in 34 years a ban on any abortion procedure has been upheld," said McQuade. "We're grateful to the court. It remains to be seen what groundwork this will lay for further protection of the unborn."
She pointed out the historic ruling was "impressive" on three main counts: for reiterating the government's legislative interest in the life of the unborn; for ensuring that women considering "so grave a choice" as abortion have informed consent; and for protecting the medical community's reputation by drawing a "bright line between abortion and infanticide."
The Supreme Court decision "is a major milestone in the battle to end the destruction of innocent human life in America," said Carl A. Anderson, Supreme Knight of the Knights of Columbus in an April 18 statement issued from the Knights' New Haven, Conn., headquarters.
"Until today," Anderson said, "the abortion license in the United States has been virtually unlimited. Finally, after nearly a decade of court battles, the way has been cleared to implement the bipartisan judgment of Congress that partial-birth abortion is brutal and inhumane, and must be prohibited.
"In upholding the Partial-Birth Abortion Ban Act, the court reasserts an important and usually forgotten part of its 1992 decision in Planned Parenthood v. Casey. 'A central premise' of that case, the court said today, is 'that the government has a legitimate, substantial interest in preserving and promoting fetal life.' In highlighting that position, I believe the court has laid the groundwork for a more searching reexamination of the crumbling foundation on which Roe v. Wade was built," added Anderson.
Family Research Council President Tony Perkins, based in Washington D.C., expressed similar sentiments. "This is a victory for a common-sense measure that is overwhelmingly favored by over 70 percent of the American people who increasingly support protections for unborn children," Perkins said April 18. "This brings the nation's abortion policy one step closer to the views of the American people."
Commenting on the majority opinion written by Justice Anthony M. Kennedy, Perkins praised the court for recognizing that the State has an interest in ensuring that pregnant women considering abortion are well informed. "The majority is to be commended for respecting the intent of Congress who represent the American people. This is a violent and inhumane act that is never medically necessary according to the American Medical Association," said Perkins.
Serrin Foster, president of the 26,000-member Feminists for Life of America, said she hopes the partial-birth abortion ruling will draw attention to the reasons a woman would "feel driven to accept this particularly heinous form of abortion.
"Often women who have late-term abortions are those who hide their pregnancies from family, friends and the father of the child, hoping that if they wait long enough, they will be supported in having their child," Foster said April 18.
Reached by phone April 23 in San Francisco where she was conducting pregnancy resource forums on local college campuses, Foster said she was gratified that the Supreme Court's ruling considered the "emotional devastation" of later-term abortions.
Los Angeles-based Sister of Social Service Paula Vandegaer, a member of the archdiocesan Commission for Catholic Life Issues and founder/program director of International Life Services, told The Tidings April 23 that the issue of informed consent is paramount for women seeking abortions.
"In my experience in working with women considering abortion, they honestly don't know what the procedure involves. When women do understand, they choose life," said Sister Vandegaer.
In the controversial method, doctors partially deliver a child, usually in a breech or feet-first position, and then puncture the skull and drain the baby's brains thereby causing its death before delivery. The medical term for the procedure is dilation and extraction, or D&X. The partial-birth abortion ban provides no exception to preserve a woman's health but permits doctors to use D&X if deemed necessary to save a woman's life.
"Abortion is extremely unnatural and women have to be deceived about it to choose it," added Sister Vandegaer.
Catholic News Service contributed to this article. |