Sunday, July 03, 2011

Eroding Roe v. Wade State-by-state

The media are recognizing the overwhelming success of the pro-life movement, especially in the past several months regarding state laws restricting abortion based on fetal pain -- laws the "experts" claim to be unconstitutional.

For background, read 'Late-Term' Abortion Redefined: Fetal Pain and also read Pro-life Legislation Floods America as well as Abortionists Fear Personhood Movement Gaining Steam

-- From "Six States Ban Abortions After 20th Week, Raising Constitutional Issues" by Debra Cassens Weiss, ABA Journal 6/27/11

Six states have passed laws banning abortions after the 20th week of gestation in an apparent conflict with Roe v. Wade, but no one has challenged the legislation in court.

. . . Abortion-rights supporters are . . . fearful about bringing a weak case that could result in new precedent at the U.S. Supreme Court.

To read the entire article above, CLICK HERE.

From "Several States Forbid Abortion After 20 Weeks" by Erik Eckholm, New York Times 6/26/11

Dozens of new restrictions passed by states this year have chipped away at the right to abortion by requiring women to view ultrasounds, imposing waiting periods or cutting funds for clinics. But a new kind of law ["fetal pain"] has gone beyond such restrictions, striking at the foundation of the abortion rules set out by the Supreme Court over the last four decades.

The ["fetal pain"] laws directly conflict with the key threshold set by the Supreme Court: that abortion cannot be banned until the fetus becomes viable. Viability, the ability to survive outside the womb, usually occurs at the 24th week of pregnancy or later, and is determined in individual cases by a doctor, said Elizabeth Nash, a policy analyst in Washington with the Guttmacher Institute, a research group.

The laws have entered into Republican presidential politics. Support for fetal pain legislation is one item in a pledge that anti-abortion groups are asking potential candidates to endorse. . . .

To read the entire article above, CLICK HERE.

From "No Middle Ground as States Look to Limit Abortion Rights: View" by the Editors, Bloomberg 6/28/11

The legislative approaches are different, but the goal is pretty much the same: to get around the 1973 Supreme Court decision that declared a woman’s right to abortion.

. . . Nine Supreme Court justices do have the right and the power (in fact, the duty) to short circuit the democratic process. That’s what the court did in its Roe v. Wade decision, which declared a privacy right broad enough to cover abortion.

Much of what makes people unhappy with the state of American politics can be traced back to Roe. The case energized the far right and politicized religious fundamentalists. It led many liberals to feel that the best approach to achieving their goals was through unelected judges.

To read the entire editorial above, CLICK HERE.

Also read Planned Parenthood Defunded by More States