Supreme Court Upholds Partial Birth Abortion Ban ActArkansas U.S. Congressman John Boozman Pleased

FoxNews: The Supreme Court upheld the nationwide ban on a controversial abortion procedure Wednesday, handing abortion opponents the long-awaited victory they expected from a more conservative bench. The 5-4 ruling said the Partial Birth Abortion Ban Act that Congress passed and President Bush signed into law in 2003 does not violate a woman's constitutional right to an abortion. Click to read the Partial Birth Abortion Ban Act.

The opponents of the act "have not demonstrated that the Act would be unconstitutional in a large fraction of relevant cases," Justice Anthony Kennedy wrote in the majority opinion. The decision pitted the court's conservatives against its liberals, with President Bush's two appointees, Chief Justice John Roberts and Justice Samuel Alito, siding with the majority. Justices Clarence Thomas and Antonin Scalia also were in the 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. 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 Wednesday's ruling. . . . "Today's decision is alarming," Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg wrote in dissent. She said the ruling "refuses to take ... seriously" previous Supreme Court decisions on abortion. . . . [Read More]

Family Research Council (FRC): We applaud the U.S. Supreme Court's decision today upholding Congress's statute that ends the bloodshed of the unborn by the horrific partial-birth abortion procedure. . . . We insist that this matter should not be in the Court, for it is not in the Constitution that was written by our Founders. However, at least now the Court is beginning to grant that the people, through their elected representatives, have a say in this matter. Writing for the majority, Justice Anthony Kennedy (joined by Chief Justice John Roberts, and Justices Samuel Alito, Clarence Thomas, and Antonin Scalia) upheld a principle that was established in Planned Parenthood v. Casey--the state has a legitimate interest in protecting unborn human life. The opinion also seems to indicate that the Court is rethinking the way in which challenges are brought by the abortion lobby to every statute affecting abortions. For years, the abortion lobby has been able to stop almost all legislation by "facial challenges." Now, perhaps, they will have to prove their case in court, as everyone else has to do. For FRC, this rare gleam of sanity in the abortion debate is a long-awaited triumph, marked by years of hard work on Capitol Hill, in legal briefs, through congressional testimony, and countless publications aimed at educating Americans on the importance of protecting life and helping mothers. Take the "10 For Life Challenge"
See Also: Arkansas U.S.Congressman John Boozman: Court made correct decision

---

Tags: abortion, John Boozman, partial birth abortion, Supreme Court Judges, US Supreme Court To share or post to your site, click on "Post Link". Please mention / link to the ARRA News Service. Thanks!