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Supreme
Court To Hear Partial Birth Abortion Case
Ban
Would Be First Instance Of Ban On Any Abortions Since
Roe.
Would
Begin Process To Bring Abortion Policy In Line With
Public’s Views.
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
February 21, 2006
The
Following Statement Can Be Attributed To Nevada LIFE
President Don Nelson
The
Supreme Court has agreed to review the
constitutionality of the partial-birth abortion ban.
The ban, which has overwhelming pubic and
Congressional support, has never taken effect because
of three ongoing court challenges. Partial-birth
abortion aborts an unborn child during the second and
third trimesters by partially delivering the unborn
child alive, puncturing the skull and, suctioning the
brains out to remove the unborn in one piece.
In
2000 the Supreme Court ruled in Stenberg v. Carhart
that state bans on partial-birth abortion are
unconstitutional unless they include a health
exception. That exception is so broad that even
emotional and familial issues are considered
exceptions to the ban and make any ban meaningless.
The current federal ban before the Court does not
include the broad health exception and has been ruled
unconstitutional by the lower courts. But
Congress has found that partial birth abortion is
never necessary. The Court needs to defer, as it
often does, to the findings of the Congress which has
spent years examining experts on partial birth
abortion.
Retired
Justice Sandra Day O’Connor was the deciding vote in
Stenberg v. Carhart and has been replaced by Justice
Samuel Alito. This will be the first abortion
case on the Supreme Court that Justice Alito will
hear. A vote by Justice Alito and Chief Justice
Roberts to uphold the ban would be the first ban on
abortions since Roe and could be the beginning of
bringing America’s abortion policy into line with
the public’s view. Polls consistently show
that more than 70 percent of Americans favor a partial
birth abortion ban. Polls also show that a
consistent majority is willing to limit abortion to
rape, incest and the life or the mother, or no
abortions at all.
The
Court needs to repudiate this form of infanticide just
as the Court has previously reversed ugly court
decisions supporting segregation and internment of
Japanese Americans in World War II. If the court does
not uphold the ban, premature infants will continue to
die by having their skulls punctured by seven-inch
scissors.
Pro-lifers
have been winning elections for many years in state
and federal executive and legislative branches.
It’s about time those victories began to show up at
the Court.
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