A step back for women in the United States
The U.S. Supreme Court voted this morning (split straight down party lines) to uphold the nationwide ban on partial-birth abortions.
"Today's decision is alarming," Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg wrote in dissent. She said the ruling "refuses to take … seriously" previous Supreme Court decisions on abortion. Ginsburg said the latest decision "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."
Although I personally believe that there are more humane ways to end a pregnancy, when medically necessary, after 12 weeks gestation, I don't agree that the federal government should be telling women what they can and cannot do with their own bodies. As I have mentioned before, Bush started down this anti-choice path his first DAY in office when he banned USAID from funding programs that offer family planning services to third world nations. Here's hoping we won't be completely return to the dark ages before the 2008 elections…
