Supreme Court hears abortion rights challenge
By Sue Davis
The Supreme Court began hearing oral arguments in the case
of Stenberg vs. Carhart on April 25. This case is the
most far-reaching test of women's right to legal abortion in
the past eight years.
In 1997 Dr. LeRoy Carhart challenged Nebraska's
purposefully misnamed "partial-birth abortion" law. After
studying it, Carhart concluded that the language banning
abortion procedures was so broad that the law could be used
to ban all surgical abortions. Under the law all doctors who
perform abortions risk 20-year prison terms.
"[The law is] an affront to medical practice, putting the
state in between the physician and the patient," says
Carhart.
Two federal courts agreed with him, ruling that the law
places an unconstitutional "undue burden" on a woman's right
to an abortion. Nebraska Attorney General Don Stenberg opted
to challenge their rulings before the U.S. Supreme Court.
Similar laws have been passed in 36 states. State or
federal courts have struck down 18 of them. A similar bill is
pending in Congress. President Bill Clinton, under pressure
from feminist supporters, vetoed it twice before and promises
to do so again.
Far-reaching repercussions
The Supreme Court's ruling in this case later this spring
will have far-reaching repercussions. It will either affirm
Roe vs. Wade, the 1973 Supreme Court decision
legalizing abortion, or restrict it.
Anti-abortion forces are pushing the deliberately broad
ban as the latest tactic in their crusade to stop women's
right to control their own health care and their lives. Over
the past 27 years, right wingers have tried all sorts of
maneuvers, illegal and legal.
Scores of clinics have been bombed, burned, invaded and
blockaded. Seven health-care workers have been murdered, and
countless others injured and threatened.
Anti-abortion demonstrators often terrorize women entering
clinics for any type of reproductive health care. And attacks
on abortion from church pulpits to legislative chambers have
created a social climate designed to make women feel guilty
when birth control fails and they need to seek medical
help.
Legal maneuvers include the Republican Party's "Human Life
Amendment," which would constitutionally ban all abortions,
and laws restricting young and poor women's access to medical
care, which disproportionately affects women of color the
most. Passing laws outlawing the medical procedure known as D
& E, which is used in only 0.08 percent of all abortions
in this country--those performed after 21 weeks of
pregnancy--is the current smoke screen designed to ban all
abortions.
The American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists,
representing 40,000 physicians who provide 90 percent of the
obstetrical-gynecological care in this country, opposes the
federal law. ACOG says it "represents an inappropriate,
ill-advised and dangerous intervention into medical decision
making."
This court case poses a serious threat to women's rights.
All progressive people, especially women's organizations,
unions, churches, and educational groups, need to be on the
alert for the Supreme Court's decision later this spring. If
women's right to abortion is compromised or restricted in any
way, mass mobilizations are needed all over the country to
demand full reproductive rights for all women.
Last April a broad coalition of progressive forces in
Buffalo, N.Y., successfully fought off anti-abortion and
anti-lesbian/gay/bi/trans attacks. That's the only effective
way to beat back the right wing.
This article is copyright under a Creative
Commons License.
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