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'Supreme Court is capable of reversing decades of constitutional protections for women'
Written by Sandy Sorensen, Justice and Witness Ministries
Thursday, 19 April 2007

Editor’s note: The UCC’s Justice and Witness Ministries released the following statement on the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision to uphold the Partial-Birth Abortion Ban, passed by Congress and signed by President Bush in 2003.

In a 5-4 ruling announced today (April 18), the U.S. Supreme Court, with its latest appointees weighing in, issued a decision to uphold the Partial Birth Abortion Ban passed by Congress and signed by President Bush in 2003.

When the law was passed in 2003, an injunction against the law was immediately filed on behalf of four physicians who perform late-term abortions. Last November, arguments were heard in the Gonzales v. Carhart case challenging the ban, and today the Court ruled in favor of the ban. The ruling weakens fundamental legal protections for women and signals an alarming shift in the Court

The UCC's Justice and Witness Ministries joined an amicus curiae, along with the Religious Coalition for Reproductive Choice (of which the UCC is a founding member organization), against the ban. The 2003 Act does not include an exception to protect the health of the woman, only the life of the woman, which we found to be unacceptable. Furthermore, the language in the law is so broad that diverse interpretations could be applied, including what specific medical procedures are banned and when they would be banned.

“Today’s decision is alarming,” writes Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg in the dissenting opinion, arguing that the ruling “refuses to take…seriously” previous Supreme Court decisions on abortion. This refers, in part, to the opinion of the Supreme Court in Stenberg v. Carhart, a 2000 decision which overturned a Nebraska late term abortion ban that did not contain a health exception for the woman. The Supreme Court, in issuing today's ruling, has effectively determined that it has the authority to take from physicians the ability to practice medicine in the best interest of their patients.

The Rev. Loey Powell, co-team leader in the UCC’s Justice and Witness Ministries and board chair of Religious Coalition for Reproductive Choice, said, “Dr. Carhart is a compassionate doctor. I have talked with him about late-term abortions – how they are performed and when they are necessary to perform. I have learned that this is a very rare procedure done only when a pregnancy reaches a later stage of gestation and either poses a significant threat to the woman’s life or health, or if the fetus is so abnormal that it does not have a chance to live.”

We now know that this Supreme Court is capable of reversing decades of constitutional protections for women in regards to their reproductive health and rights. The UCC General Synod, along with other settings of the church, has supported reproductive rights for more than 35 years, believing that women have the right to determine when and how many children they should have. The UCC General Synod also has supported access to safe and legal abortion in order to prevent the unnecessary deaths of women, or permanent damage to them, when illegal procedures are sought.

When abortion is legal, it can be regulated by health and safety laws, thus protecting patients and health care providers, Powell said.

“We cannot stand by silently and allow those who are not medically trained and experienced to make decisions about our health care,” said Powell. “Nor can we, in this pluralistic society, be silent about the ways in which the religious ideology representing only part of the religious diversity of this land is used to impose legal restrictions which affect us all.” Learn more about the UCC General Synod's resolutions on reproductive rights

Rev. Lois Powell and Rev. Carlton Veazey Condemn Ruling in Religion News Service Report

Associated Baptist Press Examines Reactions of Religious Leaders

National Council of Jewish Women Denounces Decision on Federal Abortion Ban

April 18, 2007, Washington, DC -- The National Council of Jewish Women (NCJW) today denounced the decision of the US Supreme Court to uphold a federal law banning an abortion procedure used in second and third trimester abortions to save the life and health of the woman. NCJW President Phyllis Snyder released the following statement:

"The US Supreme Court has dealt a devastating blow to Roe v. Wade and the right of women to safe and legal abortions. Their decision in Gonzales v. Carhart guts the principle that laws governing abortion must protect the life and health of the woman. By so doing, the court has overturned 30 years of precedent, including a nearly identical case in which they ruled otherwise only seven years ago.

"This ruling underscores once again that the composition of the Supreme Court matters. Who serves on the court has a direct bearing on our ability to exercise our constitutional rights, including reproductive freedom. In this case, the very health and safety of women was at stake. NCJW has been in the forefront of the fight to protect our rights through the courts and has opposed stacking the bench with judges who adhere to an extreme ideological agenda. This decision will only spur us to redouble those efforts.

"In Gonzales, the court has decided to substitute its judgment and that of Congress for the nation's doctors. NCJW pledges anew to work for the passage of the Freedom of Choice Act, which would put Congress on record in support of the right to choose and against political interference with the most basic rights of American women."

NCJW is a volunteer organization, inspired by Jewish values, that works to improve the quality of life for women, children, and families and to ensure individual rights and freedoms for all through its network of 90,000 members, supporters, and volunteers nationwide. It has launched BenchMark: NCJW's Campaign to Save Roe, a national effort to educate and mobilize NCJW members, the Jewish community, and friends and allies everywhere to promote a federal bench with judges that support fundamental freedoms, including a woman's right to choose.

UUA Laments Supreme Court Decision on Federal Abortion Ban

(Boston Massachusetts)  April 19, 2007 -- The Unitarian Universalist Association (UUA) responded with deep sadness to yesterday’s United States Supreme Court decision to ban a medical procedure used very rarely to serve the health of women.  UUA Director of Advocacy and Witness, Rev. Meg A. Riley, released the following statement:

Tragically, the U.S. Supreme Court has decided to politicize a medical procedure which is used rarely and in critical circumstances for women who face devastating alternatives.  Any minister who has counseled real families deciding to undergo this procedure knows that it is profoundly painful for all concerned.   No political rhetoric can diminish the agony that arises when a family learns that a fetus is not viable, or that a woman’s own health is at risk from a pregnancy.  Denying women and their physicians the right to make difficult, medically responsible decisions will undermine the constitution’s right to privacy and will imperil the lives of American women when they are most vulnerable.

Health decisions, including reproductive health, are complex and personal.  Eight men and one woman in Washington DC should not determine how families, consulting their doctors and their religious values, will discern the best way to move forward in difficult times.   The future for all Americans is dimmer today because yesterday the Court decided not only that women are incapable of making these decisions, but that their very lives are not worth protecting. 

Unitarian Universalists will rededicate ourselves to supporting the Freedom of Choice Act to prohibit the courts and legislative bodies from interfering with families’ abilities to make medically sound decisions that are, ultimately, profound questions of conscience. 

The Unitarian Universalist Association has supported women’s right to reproductive health services, including abortion, since 1963.  This continued support includes advocating leaving medical decisions to doctors and patients and working towards passage of federal legislation to guarantee the fundamental right of choice in reproductive health matters.

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The Unitarian Universalist Association is a faith community of more than 1000 self-governing congregations that bring to the world a vision of religious freedom, tolerance and social justice.  For more information on the UUA, including recent press releases and news articles, please visit our online pressroom at www.uua.org. 

Reform Jewish Leader Condemns Today's Supreme Court Ruling on Late Term Abortions
       
Contact: Rachel Slomovitz
202.387.2800 | news@rac.org

April 18, 2007, Washington, DC- In response to today’s Supreme Court ruling in Gonzales v. Panned Parenthood and Gonzales v. Carhart, Rabbi David Saperstein, Director of the Religious Action Center of Reform Judaism, issued the following statement:

Today’s ruling upholding the federal ban on late term abortions is a tragic attack on women’s reproductive rights.  Again, the incremental chipping away at the rights established by the Roe v. Wade decision and affirmed in the Court’s previous ruling in 2000 overturning a state ban on this procedure, leads us closer to the full eradication of women’s reproductive rights.  The Union for Reform Judaism was proud to join an amicus brief in support of Planned Parenthood, and it is clear that today’s ruling has perpetrated a great injustice upon every woman in America.

Justice Kennedy’s majority opinion states that the ban’s opponents “have not demonstrated that the Act would be unconstitutional in a large fraction of relevant cases.” His disregard for the rights of the so-called “fraction” of women who, for a range of reasons, including the preservation of their own lives, need specific reproductive health services, is heartless and insensitive.

Today’s decision to overturn the related rulings of six lower courts compromises the health, wellbeing, and safety of women throughout our nation. It places the ideological inclinations of five Supreme Court Justices over the expertise of the medical establishment, including the American College of Obstetrics and Gynecologists, a body that has deemed late term abortions to be necessary in certain cases and medically sound when provided by trained physicians. When medical decisions are taken out of the hands of women and their doctors, an injustice has been done. Women are capable of making sound medical and moral decisions without government interference.
This Court decision, which indicates that no exception be made when a woman’s health is at risk, fundamentally violates the right of every woman in this nation to have sovereignty over her body. We will continue to fight for the rights of women to determine their own reproductive destiny and ensure that women throughout this country have the access they deserve to the full range of high quality medical care.

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The Religious Action Center of Reform Judaism is the Washington office of the Union for Reform Judaism, whose more than 900 congregations across North America encompass 1.5 million Reform Jews, and the Central Conference of American Rabbis, whose membership includes more than 1800 Reform rabbis.