Pro-Lifers Prayerful as SCOTUS Considers Partial-Birth Abortion Ban
by John Clemens
November 9, 2006
(AgapePress) - - On Wednesday (November 8) the U.S. Supreme Court listened to both sides of the debate over whether a federal ban on partial-birth abortions -- a controversial procedure also known as dilation and extraction -- should be upheld. However the court will not announce its decision on the ban until sometime late in June. In 2000, the Supreme Court voted 5-4 to reject the ban on partial-birth abortions. However, the composition of the court has changed since that vote due to the retirements of Justice Sandra Day O'Connor, who voted against the ban six years ago.
Justice Samuel Alito took O'Connor's position on the court, and Judge John Roberts took over as Chief Justice, succeeding the late Chief Justice William Rehnquist. For many pro-life supporters, the presence of these Bush appointees on the Supreme Court bench is reason for hope, as they believe the Roberts court will be disposed to rule in favor of protecting the lives of innocent unborn children.
Jay Sekulow, chief counsel of the American Center for Law and Justice, feels optimistic about the high court's review of the partial-birth abortion ban. "Three of the Justices -- Justices Kennedy, Scalia, and Thomas -- have already compared this procedure to infanticide," the attorney notes, "so if Justice Kennedy sticks to his earlier decision, we will carry the day."
After attending oral arguments at the Supreme Court on Wednesday, Sekulow says he was outraged that attorneys from Planned Parenthood took the lead in the case to keep partial-birth abortion legal in America. He notes that Planned Parenthood gets $265 million a year from American taxpayers, and the organization used part of that funding today to argue in support of this procedure.
Sekulow and other pro-life supporters are calling on Christians to pray that the U.S. Supreme Court will decide against partial-birth abortions and outlaw this procedure once and for all.
Stand to Reason Spokesman: Let's Call Partial-Abortion What it Is -- Infanticide
Greg Koukl of the Christian pro-family group Stand to Reason is among those calling for prayer against the ban. He says partial-birth abortion is really a misnomer because, in this gruesome procedure, "the baby is delivered feet first until only the child's head remains in the birth canal.
"At that point," Koukl continues, "the abortionist takes a pair of scissors, punctures the base of the child's skull, suctions out the brain tissue with a catheter, then completes the delivery of the baby's corpse."
Partial-birth abortion or the clinical term "dilation and extraction" are not properly descriptive of what "to me is infanticide, only with the baby's head covered," Koukl asserts. He says he wonders how far those who support partial-birth abortion will be willing to go to continue their endorsement of this barbaric procedure.
"Partial-birth abortion reminds me of the ostrich hiding its head in the sand," the Stand to Reason spokesman says, "because a fool thinks the real world is defined by where his head is located, and those who support this procedure treat the child like the ostrich." He goes on to say that, because the ostrich has its head obscured, the rest of the world doesn't exist.
"So how far are the pro-aborts willing to go," Koukl asks, "and how much of the baby's body has to be inside the mother to justify killing him -- his arm, his little fist, or why not just a finger?'
The concern of many other pro-lifers is that if partial-birth abortion remains legal, then nothing will prevent infanticide, even without covering the baby's head, Koukl says. "And when that time comes in America," he adds, "I think I know what words will be used to sanitize it: they'll call it a post-natal abortion.'
Koukl wants people to understand fully what partial-birth abortion is. This brutal and inhuman procedure involves "a little boy or little girl, fully alive until the moment the doctor's instrument pierces the skull," the pro-life advocate says. "Then, of course, the body of this gift from God goes limp, because the baby is dead. And this, for now, is protected by law in America."
John Clemens, an occasional contributor to AgapePress, is a veteran Christian journalist who live in Texas.
