Supreme Court Backs Ban on Abortion Procedure

Court Backs Ban on Abortion Procedure

By MARK SHERMAN

Apr 18, 10:13 AM EDT

Associated Press Writer

WASHINGTON (AP) -- The Supreme Court upheld the nationwide ban on a controversial abortion procedure Wednesday, handing abortion opponents the long-awaited victory they expected from a more conservative bench.

The 5-4 ruling said the Partial Birth Abortion Ban Act that Congress passed and President Bush signed into law in 2003 does not violate a woman's constitutional right to an abortion.

The opponents of the act "have not demonstrated that the Act would be unconstitutional in a large fraction of relevant cases," Justice Anthony Kennedy wrote in the majority opinion.

The decision pitted the court's conservatives against its liberals, with President Bush's two appointees, Chief Justice John Roberts and Justice Samuel Alito, siding with the majority.

Justices Clarence Thomas and Antonin Scalia also were in the majority.

It was the first time the court banned a specific procedure in a case over how - not whether - to perform an abortion.

In Mexico, a Furious Debate Over Abortion

Catholic Church Fights Legislation

By Manuel Roig-Franzia

Washington Post Foreign Service
Sunday, April 15, 2007; Page A01

MEXICO CITY -- The young woman with the cascading curls walked into a dumpy house with no sign out front on the day she decided to get an abortion.

Inside, she says, she paid $200 for eight syringes filled with a milky liquid and a set of instructions. She spent the night in a Mexico City hotel room, self-administering injections that made her bleed and cry out in agony.

The next day, weak and depressed, the woman was persuaded by her sister to see a doctor, who determined that she had undergone an incomplete abortion, the woman said during an interview on condition of anonymity. He conducted an emergency procedure to complete the abortion and stave off infection.

"What have I done?" she recalled thinking. "I risked my life."

The woman and tens of thousands like her who undergo illegal abortions in Mexico each year are at the nexus of a furious cultural debate gripping this nation, which allows abortion only in limited cases, including rape and when the mother's life is in danger. Abortion opponents cite cases such as hers as evidence that abortion should be further curtailed; abortion rights advocates argue that the procedure should be decriminalized so that women have access to safe abortions

Read more at:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/04/14/AR2007041400775.html?hpid=topnews

A Liberal's Agrument for LIFE

(This is taking from another blog posting)

Thursday, December 16, 2004

The liberal pro-life argument
This came in the mail. Clearly I don't agree with this viewpoint, but I thought he made his case well. And in the interest of debate, I'll present it. Now read closely: Jen and I are pro-choice. Jen did clinic defense while in law school. But you don't often hear liberal pro-lifers, so....
I figured I'd give you a quick comment on your abortion article just to throw some contrary thoughts your way.

I am a Consistent Life Ethic kinda guy - oppose abortion, the death penalty, euthanasia, pretty much anything that involves the termination of human life. I'm also pretty much overeducated NY style Irish Catholic white trash - relatives are cops, meatpackers, union men, &c. So I hope that I know that of which I speak. I'm also a member of Democrats for Life - we're pretty much a pro-life Democrat organization, in the Consistent Life Ethic vein.Anyway a couple of thoughts. I think one of the major messes involving the abortion debate in the United States is that its interpretation is pretty much unique. The rights-based interpretation of abortion is pretty much ahistorical - I know, for example, that Susan B. Anthony expected one of the signs of women's liberation would be the elimination of abortion. That women would no longer be so far backed into a corner that abortion would be considered an option.Similarly, it's unique to the U.S. and Canada. In Europe it's viewed as more of a health and biology issue - France has considerably tighter abortion laws than the united States. Actually, on paper, pretty much every western european country has tighter abortion laws than the united states; also considerably lower abortion rates. I'd argue that one of the holes we're in in the U.S., and the reason that abortion is not a 'settled issue' the way it is in Europe is only partly due to pro-life militancy, it's also because of a marked unwillingness on the pro-choice side to discuss the issue. Since Roe, U.S. abortion policy has been pretty much static with one side desperately trying to pack the courts and the other side desperately trying to prevent it.I haven't found anyone on the pro-choice side who views abortion as a celebratory act, but rather as a necessary choice - to eliminate the specter of back alleys and coat hangers. However, what the GOP does is focus on the corner cases of the issue - and the Democrats end up reacting in fear and ending up defending more and more indefensible cases. Partial Birth was really more vote-whoring than anything else, and also exhibit A in why the GOP doesn't care about abortion past getting votes - they had the ability to do something substantive, and this was their choice. Same thing with this anaesthesia measure they're pushing next. It's real goal is to put democrats on the defensive.There's an organization called PLAGAL - pro-life alliance of gays and lesbians - and their argument against abortion is because they're worried about what happens if homosexuality is genetic and we develop a pre-natal test. This is actually a problem in places like India right now - where abortion is used heavily as a way of guaranteeing male births. I'm sure that somewhere right now there's a move in the GOP to produce a bill making the democrats defend sex-selective or eugenic abortion - something that is going to make the choice rhetoric ring truly hollow.I think the biggest problem with the U.S. abortion debate is that it treats the entire thing as taking place only at the moment of the choice - as if we reproduced via parthenogenesis. My mindset these days is that abortion is a symptom of a deeper problem - when we do find somebody who is having an abortion, we should ask how we as a government and a people have screwed up so badly that this is considered a good idea. what can we do to fix this next time? Better birth control education? Better prenatal care for women? National health care?The reason I am a pro-life _democrat_ is because I believe these kind of solutions make a helluva lot more sense in the Democratic context. My general feeling is that the GOP will end up increasing abortion rates simply because they're going to increase the number of corners a person gets backed into. My concern for the Democrats is that they've implicitly accepted a 'GOP' interpretation - one of helplessness and impotence, rather than figuring out how to apply the capacities of government to solve the problem.I actually think that the Democrats could come up with something more acceptable to pro-lifers within the context of Roe - most of the Roe messes actually come from Doe V. Bolton, which established an inordinately broad definition of threats to the mother's health in the third trimester. If the Democrats approached abortion as a necessary and constitutionally protected evil, but worked to reduce the abortion rate through measures that we know work, then we'd open the door to bringing back a lot of Democrats who've gritted their teeth and voted Republican for the past 20 years.The thing is, this would be a golden opportunity to make the GOP put up or shut up. Ask them if what they want to do is stop abortion or stop _legal_ abortion. When I drive to D.C. from PA, I hit fireworks stores at the Maryland border; I'll bet that if Roe is overtuned and PA outlaws abortion, abortion clinics will pop up at the PA border. Hell, Ireland has a 10/1000 abortion rate. The GOP can't actually do much realistica about abortion unless they try to pass a Human Life Amendment, and if they do, they'll lose a good chunk of their constituents anyway - one of the successes of the GOP's abortion strategy is that they've made the 75% of the population who aren't militantly pro-choice view the democrats as more fanatical about abortion.

Colorado Springs Vigil

Media Advisory

For Immediate Release UCCS STUDENTS FOR LIFE

March. 19, 2007 Contact: President Mary Pico

Phone: (719) 201-3714

e-mail: mimicecilpico@yahoo.com

UCCS Students for Life vigil

Colorado Springs, CO – UCCS Students will hold a vigil at Planned Parenthood to remember the lives taken by abortion since its legalization 40 years ago in the state. The event is co-sponsored by UCCS Students for Life, Colorado Right to Life and the Colorado Springs Catholic Dioceses.

Who: University of Colorado, Colorado Springs Students for Life

What: Candlelight Vigil to remember the lives taken since abortion was legalized 40 years ago in Colorado

Where: Planned Parenthood

1330 W Colorado Ave, Colorado Springs, CO

When: Wednesday April 25

8-10 pm

*Schedule:

UCCS Students for Life

Candlelight Vigil to protest 40 years of legalized abortion in Colorado

April 25 from 8-10pm at the Planned Parenthood Abortion Clinic on Colorado Ave.

Sponsors:

Colorado Right to Life

Colorado Spring Catholic Dioceses

UCCS Students for Life

Itinerary:

8:00-8:30 Prayer and worship; 40 crosses

8:30-8:35 Remember Abortions from 1967-1977

8:35-8:55 Blessings/Speakers

8:55-9:00 Remember Abortions from 1977-1987

9:00-9:15 Speaker

9:15-9:20 Remember Abortions from 1987-1997

9:20-9:30 Memorial Service; Pray to close the clinic

9:30-9:45 Speaker

9:45-10:00 Remember abortions from 1997-2007;leave flowers in silence

Speakers:

- Chastity

- Former Abortionist

- Those who have had abortions

Contacts:

Mary Pico: (719) 201-3714 mimicecilpico@yahoo.comm

President UCCS Students for Life

Michele Pico: (719) 231-5011 Michele_pico@yahoo.com

Vice President UCCS Students for Life

The Dangers of Abortion

Abortion Risks

Abortion isn't necessarily as "safe and easy" as many make it out to be. Here is a list of the risks of abortion - surgical and chemical:

Surgical Abortions

Future Ectopic Pregnancies:

• Studies point out that the risk of an ectopic or tubal (not in the uterus but in the tubes that lead to the uterus) ;pregnancy is 30% higher for women who have had one abortion, and up to four times higher for women with two or more abortions.
• When a woman has an Ectopic pregnancy she has a 12% risk of dying in a future pregnancy.

Pelvic Inflammatory Disease (PID):

• 5% of women suffer PID following induced (or surgical) abortion. PID can lead to fever and infertility (not being able to get pregnant again)
• There is a 23% higher risk of infection if you have an STD (Sexually Transmitted Disease).
• 40% of the sexually active are suspected carriers of STDs.

Breast Cancer:

Reputable studies suggests that women who abort face a 50% increase in breast cancer. If the woman has a family history of breast cancer, this rate doubles with each successive abortion, if the woman is under 18 or over 30 years of age when the abortion takes place.

Placenta Previa:

Placenta previa is a condition in pregnancy where the sac holding the baby (the placenta) tears away from the uterine lining. This can result in extreme and severe life-threatening bleeding. Women who have experienced abortion have a 600% increase in their risk for placenta previa in future pregnancies.

Infertility:

Infertility and sterility mean that a woman cannot get pregnant. Abortion causes sterility in 2-5% of the women who have an abortion.

Psychological/Emotional Trauma:

50% of women who have had abortions report experiencing emotional and psychological problems lasting for months or years. These emotions include, but aren't limited to:

• acute feeling of grief
• depression
• anger
• fear of disclosure
• preoccupation with babies or getting pregnant again
• nightmares
• sexual dysfunction
• termination of relationships
• emotional coldness
• increased alcohol and drug abuse
• eating disorders
• anxiety
• flashbacks of the abortion procedure
• anniversary syndrome
• repeat abortions
• suicide

Many of these women go on to report that they regret their choice and would do anything to go back and undo the decision that resulted in so much pain.

Medical (Chemical) abortion risks include (but are not limited to):

"The Morning After Pill" (Emergency Contraception Pill) - - If taken within 72 hours of intercourse it prevents pregnancy 75% of the time. Medical problems would be similar to birth control pills, however effects could be more pronounced.

Methotrexate - (given prior to 8 weeks) Doctors don't like to prescribe this chemical because of its high toxicity and unpredictable side effects. Those side effects include but are not limited to:

• nausea
• pain
• diarrhea
• bone marrow depression
• anemia
• liver damage
• lung disease
• heavy bleeding for as long as 40 days
• abortion may occur anywhere

This chemical may not work and a surgical abortion may still be required.

Psychological/ Emotional Trauma:

In addition to the risks listed above, women having chemical abortions often see the complete tiny bodies of their unborn child and are even able to see the child's developing hands, eyes, etc. So traumatic is this for some women that it is recommended that women unprepared for the experience not take the drugs.

Learn more about what a preborn child looks like: Just The Facts

If you are considering abortion because of your circumstances, know that you can change your situation. If you aren't sure about this choice, take time to find out "why" you have these feelings. Pregnancy care centers are here to help you in any situation regardless of your decision.

2 Teri K. Reisser and Paul C. Reisser, Identifying and Overcoming Post-Abortion Syndrome, Colorado Springs, CO.: Focus on the Family

3 "Oral Contraceptives & The Morning After Pill," Take Heart, Columbus Ohio: Heartbeat International

4 "Abortion Some Medical Facts," NRLC

5 Ibid

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