FEDERAL ABORTION BAN UPHELD BY SUPREME COURT: Rhode Island Women and Girls at Risk
April 18, 2007
Providence, RI – Today the US Supreme Court upheld the nation’s first abortion procedure ban – a ban enacted by George W. Bush and conservatives in Congress. The grave impact of this ban will undoubtedly impact women in Rhode Island.
“The Supreme Court’s decision to uphold the federal abortion procedure ban usurps a woman’s ability to make critical health care decisions with her physician. That this ruling includes no exception for the health of the woman immorally places a higher value on the fetus than on the living, breathing human being who is carrying it,” said Carolyn Mark, President of the Rhode Island Chapter of the National Organization for Women.
The U.S. Supreme Court, in making this decision, has potentially opened the floodgates to ending safe, legal abortion and provided an opening for a direct challenge to Roe v. Wade, which has been the law of the land for 34 years. With this decision, the women’s health exception enshrined in Roe and protected in Casey has been virtually eliminated.
The law is so vaguely written that it may ban the most common abortion procedure used after 12 weeks of pregnancy, and there is no exception to allow its use if the woman’s health is in serious danger. The joint ruling in Gonzales v. Carhart and Gonzales v. Planned Parenthood is a major step in the campaign to outlaw all abortions, first by chipping away at and then by fully overturning Roe v. Wade.
Said Ms. Mark: “President Bush used his allies’ control in Congress to push through anti-abortion legislation, and he used their power to confirm anti-abortion justices to the Supreme Court—justices who have now upheld that same legislation. We must stop the stacking of the federal courts and work toward a congressional majority – at the state and national level - that supports women’s rights.”