Supreme Court: Women's Place is Barefoot and Pregnant

Tweet The Supreme Court today narrowly upheld a nationwide ban on a controversial abortion procedure, handing a major victory to President Bush and his social conservative allies.

Portion of article below--click on link to read the whole thing:

"Ginsburg responded that the majority's solution was not to insure that the woman is informed of the details of the procedure.

"'Instead, the court shields women by denying them any choice in the matter," she said. "This way of protecting women recalls ancient notions about women's place in society and under the Constitution -- ideas that have long since been discredited."

"The ruling was welcome news to abortion opponents who have placed their hopes in Bush's conservative nominees to the Supreme Court. Making up today's majority, in addition to Kennedy, were Bush's two picks -- Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr. and Alito -- as well as two of the court's staunchest conservatives: Scalia and Thomas. Kennedy, who joined the court in 1988 after being nominated by President Ronald Reagan, has long been viewed as a swing vote on key issues.

"Joining Ginsburg in her dissenting opinion were Justices John Paul Stevens, David H. Souter and Stephen G. Breyer.

"'Today's decision is alarming," Ginsburg wrote for the minority. "It tolerates, indeed applauds, federal intervention to ban nationwide a procedure found necessary and proper in certain cases by the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists. . . . And, for the first time since Roe, the Court blesses a prohibition with no exception safeguarding a woman's health."
She added: "Retreating from prior rulings that abortion restrictions cannot be imposed absent an exception safeguarding a woman's health, the Court upholds an Act that surely would not survive under the close scrutiny that previously attended state-decreed limitations on a woman's reproductive choices."

"The 2003 ban has never taken effect because of court challenges. Six federal courts ruled that the law impermissibly restricted a woman's constitutional right to have an abortion.

Found on Cursor.org