Supremes Hear Arguments in Partial-Birth Abortion Ban Cases
by Jim Brown
November 8, 2006
(AgapePress) - - Today the nation's highest court is taking up what one Christian apologetics professor calls "watershed cases" for the abortion issue. The U.S. Supreme Court has heard arguments in two cases challenging the constitutionality of the 2003 federal ban on partial-birth abortion -- Gonzalez v. Carhart and Gonzalez v. Planned Parenthood. Six federal courts have struck down the Partial-Birth Abortion Ban Act as an unconstitutional restriction on the right to abortion as established in the 1973 landmark case Roe v. Wade.
Greg Koukl, founder and president of the California-based ministry Stand to Reason says partial-birth abortion is not really about abortion. In fact, he says, it is infanticide with the baby's head covered.
"If you just picture what a partial-birth abortion entails ... it becomes really obvious that this is not something we should ever countenance in a civilized society," he says. He then describes what takes place. "The baby 90 percent delivered, the head still inside the birth canal, the doctor piercing the skull with the curved Metzenbaum scissors, inserting a suction device and sucking out the brains to kill the child.
Koukl, who is an adjunct professor of Christian apologetics at Biola University, explains the long-term effect of a ruling favorable to a federal ban on what he describes as a "barbaric" procedure.
"If we say this is wrong, then people are going to think, 'Gee, what's the difference if you move the baby just a couple of inches up the birth canal?'" he suggests. "They'll see, if partial-birth abortion is barbaric, then any late-term abortion is barbaric, even when it's done inside the mother. That's why this is such a watershed-decision-issue case."
When the Supreme Court struck down a law similar to the ban in the Stenberg case, Justice Sandra Day O'Connor was the all-important swing vote in a 5-4 decision. Now experts say that role will be filled by Justice Anthony Kennedy, who issued a strong dissent in Stenberg. Several lower federal courts have cited Stenberg in issuing injunctions barring enforcement of the Partial-Birth Abortion Ban Act.
The Center for Reclaiming America for Christ was to deliver almost 170,000 petitions today to the Supreme Court, asking the high court to uphold the ban on partial-birth abortion. Accompanying the boxed petitions is a letter from the Center's founder and president, Dr. D. James Kennedy. In the letter Kennedy shares that his prayer is for a ruling that will protect unborn children from "this heinous procedure" and that God would give the court "great wisdom" as it considers the case.
Jim Brown, a regular contributor to AgapePress, is a reporter for American Family Radio News, which can be heard online.
