Congressman Hopes High Court Reinstates Partial-Birth Abortion Ban
by Jim Brown
October 24, 2006
(AgapePress) - - An Ohio congressman is calling on the U.S. Supreme Court to ban what he calls "a gruesome and inhumane" and unnecessary medical procedure that is currently legal in America -- partial-birth abortion. One day after next month's mid-term elections, the high court in the nation's capital will hear arguments in Gonzalez v. Carhart and Gonzalez v. Planned Parenthood, cases that will decide whether the Partial-Birth Abortion Ban Act of 2003 is constitutional. That legislation, authored by Ohio Congressman Steve Chabot, outlaws the controversial abortion technique, in which an unborn baby's head is deliberately punctured with a pair of scissors and the child's brains are suctioned out through a catheter.
Although Chabot admits he believes Roe v. Wade, the landmark Supreme Court ruling that legalized abortion-on-demand in America, should be overturned, he says the partial-birth abortion ban is not -- despite what liberals in Congress claim -- a threat to Roe v. Wade. Rather, his legislation targets a single late-term abortion technique regarded by many pro-life opponents as particularly brutal.
The bill banning that abortion technique overwhelmingly passed both the House and Senate and was signed into law by President Bush, but has nevertheless been overturned by several federal judges. On November 8, the U.S. Supreme Court will hear arguments from opponents of the ban, who claim it is invalid because it lacks a so-called "health exception" for mothers.
Chabot feels the court should defer to Congress's lawmaking ability in the matter. After all, he notes, he and the other members of the legislature "had extensive hearings with medical documentation, and medical testimony," and the Supreme Court generally, "as long as there's sufficient evidence, will defer to the legislative branch on something like this."
The Ohio congressman finds it difficult to fathom why the partial-birth abortion ban is even an issue of contention or controversy for federal judges. "When you consider how horrific a procedure this is, it's hard for me to even comprehend how educated people would think that this is okay," he says, "and hopefully they won't rule that way this time."
Although opponents of the Partial-Birth Abortion Ban Act argue that the ban endangers women's health, Chabot insists to the contrary, that "doctors and experts have said that this procedure is never medically necessary, and the procedure itself is dangerous to women." In fact, the congressman points out, "there are many women who are injured, sometimes very severely, in this particular procedure; there have been documented cases of that."
If the courts truly want to protect a woman's health, Chabot contends, they should stop this particular type of abortion, "which is not only harming women but obviously destroying the life of that child." He is hopeful that the current makeup of the Supreme Court will yield a ban on what he sees as a barbaric procedure that must be outlawed.
Jim Brown, a regular contributor to AgapePress, is a reporter for American Family Radio News, which can be heard online.
