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Supreme Court Agrees to Hear Abortion Ban Case
With Carhart v. Stenberg, the Supreme Court could dismantle the very foundations of the right to choose abortion — or they could reaffirm Roe v. WadeStatement by Gloria Feldt
President, Planned Parenthood Federation of America
January 14, 2000
Washington, DC — Today the U.S. Supreme Court agreed to hear the appeal of Carhart v. Stenberg, regarding a Nebraska law banning abortion procedures. On September 24, 1999, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit affirmed the federal district court opinion by striking down the law as unconstitutional. Planned Parenthood fully supports that decision and urges the Supreme Court to do the same.
The Eight Circuit held that the pivotal term in the proposed law, so-called "partial-birth" abortion, "though widely used by lawmakers and the popular press, has no fixed medical or legal content" (Carhart at 1144) has the effect of criminalizing the safest and most common medical procedures for terminating pregnancies. Furthermore, the law lacks an exception for the woman's health, a condition Supreme Court jurisprudence has consistently held to be a paramount interest to be protected in the context of any abortion restriction.
More than any other event in our nation's history, Roe v. Wade, the 1973 landmark decision legalizing abortion, gave women control over their reproductive choices. It had a profound and revolutionary impact, enabling women to participate fully in the political, social, and economic life of the nation. With Carhart v. Stenberg, the Supreme Court could dismantle the very foundations of the right to choose abortion — the privacy of women's health, the role of doctors in making medical decisions, and the limited reasons available to justify state interference.
For 27 years, the anti-choice movement has done everything in its power to overturn Roe. Americans should not be fooled — this law is not about a medical procedure. It is part of a shrewd, on-going legal strategy to undercut a woman's freedom to decide when or whether to have a child.
Anti-choice organizations oppose abortion for any reason, by any method, at any point in pregnancy. They also oppose contraception, medically accurate sex education, safer sex information, and they want women to become subordinate to the will of the men in their lives.
Planned Parenthood stands for the right of individuals to make their own responsible sexual and reproductive health care decisions without interference from the government. We call on the Supreme Court to decide this case on the side of the health, the lives, and the freedom of American women and their families.
