Is partial birth abortion legal in the United States?
Full Question:
Answer:
Supreme Court Upholds Partial Birth-Abortion Ban
April 18th, 2007
In a 5-4 decision, the United States Supreme Court today upheld a federal ban on a medical procedure which has come to be known as a partial-birth abortion. In 2003, Congress passed the Partial-Birth Abortion Ban Act. The Act prohibits a procedure in which a physician delivers a live fetus only to perform an overt act to end the life of the fetus.
Writing for the majority, Justice Kennedy said, “Respondents have not demonstrated that the Act, as a facial matter, is void for vagueness or that it imposes and undo burden on a woman’s right to abortion based on its overbreath or a lack of health exception.”
Writing for the dissent, Justice Ginsburg said, “Today’s decision is alarming… It tolerates, indeed applauds federal intervention to ban a nationwide procedure found neccesary and proper in certain cases by the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists. It blurs the line firmly drawn in Casey, between previability and postviability abortions. And for the first time since Roe, the court blesses a prohibition with no exception safeguarding a woman’s health.
Any physician who performs a partial-birth abortion now faces fines and imprisonment of up to two years.
The case is Gonzales v. Carhart, 05-380.
