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CWA Provides Summary of Supreme Court Briefs on Partial-Birth Abortion 10/30/2006 Washington, D.C. − A summary of the thirty amicus (friend of court) briefs filed on both sides with the U.S. Supreme Court on the partial-birth abortion ban case Gonzales v. Carhart is now available from Concerned Women for America. This summary provides a review of the major arguments the Supreme Court will consider.
The Supreme Court will hear arguments on two partial-birth abortion cases, Gonzales v. Carhart and Gonzales v. Planned Parenthood. Congress passed the Partial Birth Abortion Ban Act in 2003. Before President Bush signed it into law, abortion advocates filed lawsuits in federal courts in New York, San Francisco and Nebraska. Two of these challenges will be considered by the U.S. Supreme Court.
Numerous groups, including CWA, submitted briefs.
Arguments in support of the ban include:
Congress was entitled to great deference when it found that partial-birth abortion is never medically necessary to preserve the health of the mother. The Partial Birth Abortion Ban Act of 2003 is not overbroad or vague. It provides ample notice of the conduct that it prohibits and contains no ambiguous terms or phrases. The Act does not violate the Supreme Court’s precedent because it does not impose an undue burden on women, and it satisfies the health exception requirement. The Court has said that a health exception is necessary only when substantial medical authority supports that the ban could endanger women’s health. Opposing arguments include:
Any restriction on abortion requires an exception where it is necessary, in appropriate medical judgment, for the preservation of the life or health of the mother. The record establishes that the procedures banned by the Act provide significant safety benefits to women. Congressional findings are not supported by the record and should not be entitled to great deference. Congress banned partial-birth abortion after compiling legal and medical evidence on this procedure in which abortionists deliver a baby until only the head is inside the mother. The doctor then collapses the skull by removing the baby’s brain.
“Americans are repulsed by this horrific procedure that crushes a mostly-born baby’s head,” says Wendy Wright, CWA president. “Surely the justices who voted for Roe could not have imagined they were providing a blank check for abortionists to do what would be unconscionable against even terrorists. The Supreme Court will decide whether this gruesome act against innocent babies will be deemed ‘constitutional.’”
Click to read the full summary. CWA experts are available to comment.
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