Partial-Birth Abortion Ban Act First Restriction of Roe v. Wade
On 18 April 2007, the United States Supreme Court voted 5–4 to uphold the Partial-Birth Abortion Ban Act.
Restriction of Roe v. Wade
This is the first judicial restriction on an abortion procedure since the tragic Roe v. Wade decision in 1973, and as such is to be celebrated. By itself, it makes just a minor breach in the “right to privacy” seawall invented by the Blackmun Court to justify all abortions. But through this breach will flow streams of reason that will help turn the tide against abortion-on-demand and in favor of the sanctity of lite.
The Opinion
Why am I so confident on this score? Read the following passage from the opinion — I must warn you in advance that it can be upsetting — and you will begin to see why:
The abortionist (his assistant reported) “delivered the baby’s body and arms — everything but the head.” At that point, “The baby’s little fingers were clasping and unclasping, and his little feet were kicking. Then the doctor stuck the scissors in the back of his head, and the baby’s arms jerked out. … The doctor opened up the scissors, stuck a high-powered suction tube into the opening, and sucked the baby’s brains out.”
No one whose heart beats within their chest can read this account and not be moved. That is why criticism of those who advocated the ban on Partial-Birth Abortions is so misplaced.
Only a Partial-Ban
The critics are of course right that the full opinion is very narrowly drawn. They are right that the ban will not serve as a check on the 1.1 million abortions performed in this country — nor even necessarily stop all partial-birth abortions. They are right that the Partial-Birth Abortion Ban forbids only the “intact D&E procedure,” which it defines as the act of partially delivering the baby with the intent of killing him or her. They are probably even right, as Judge Ginsburg claimed in her angry dissent, that the Ban may not save a single baby from “destruction.” The abortionists have invented many different ways to kill unborn babies.
But all this is beside the point.
A Chance to Educate
The debate on Partial-Birth Abortion has educated millions of Americans on the reality or abortion, and in a way that has maximum emotional impact. This is the reason why abortion advocates have been hysterically denouncing the decision over the past few weeks.
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They understand that any legislation that focuses public attention on the unborn child is a defeat for them.
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They understand that the principle that it planted — that unborn children could not simply be torn apart at will, in whatever fashion was most convenient to the abortionist — poses a threat to abortion-on-demand.
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They understand that it is but a small step from being horrified by Partial-Birth Abortion to being horrified by Partial-Birth Abortion to being horrified that we as a country continue to dismember over a million babies a year still in utero.
Need to Ban Sex Selective Abortion
That is why we at PRI have proposed a ban on Sex Selective Abortion here in Washington.
