Supreme Court, you suck
The Supreme Court gave the evangelical lobby a happy ending today, with the decision that the Partial Birth Abortion Ban is legal -- without exceptions for women's health and wellbeing. This is such a spurious case, even more pointless than the average anti-choicing.
First off, this law will not prevent abortions from taking place. It's banned a particular procedure (D&X) performed during the second trimester, but there is another procedure that remains legal that can be performed even later than this one(D&E). For some reason, the precise location along the birthing canal where the abortion takes place seems to really matter to the pro-life lobby. So, this ruling is highly unlikely to prevent abortions, but does have the potential to harm women, since doctors cannot now select which procedure is safer for their particular patient.
Secondly - late term abortions are hard for some people to agree with, due to the potential ability of children at this age to survive outside the womb, and the fact that they get all cute and human-looking. BUT - extremely few abortions at this stage are performed simply because the woman does not want a child. In almost all cases, women who abort in these late stages do so because their lives or health is at risk, or because their fetus has been diagnosed with a major medical problem. Why would women endure months of morning sickness, exhaustion, and general misery only to abort in a painful and medically-invasive way?
I am tired, and ineloquent. And annoyed. Bed is probably best.
First off, this law will not prevent abortions from taking place. It's banned a particular procedure (D&X) performed during the second trimester, but there is another procedure that remains legal that can be performed even later than this one(D&E). For some reason, the precise location along the birthing canal where the abortion takes place seems to really matter to the pro-life lobby. So, this ruling is highly unlikely to prevent abortions, but does have the potential to harm women, since doctors cannot now select which procedure is safer for their particular patient.
Secondly - late term abortions are hard for some people to agree with, due to the potential ability of children at this age to survive outside the womb, and the fact that they get all cute and human-looking. BUT - extremely few abortions at this stage are performed simply because the woman does not want a child. In almost all cases, women who abort in these late stages do so because their lives or health is at risk, or because their fetus has been diagnosed with a major medical problem. Why would women endure months of morning sickness, exhaustion, and general misery only to abort in a painful and medically-invasive way?
I am tired, and ineloquent. And annoyed. Bed is probably best.