Supreme Court bans PBA

[derrida]

Lots to talk about here. First off, Justice Kennedy has started to refer to a fetus as a "baby" and medical professionals as "abortion doctors."

Now, in a case referenced by the court, stenberg v. carhart, the district court ruled that where medical consensus cannot be found for the neccessity of the procedure, the default rule is to favor the judgement of the woman and her physicians. In this case, Kennedy says that the deferment is made to the judgement of the legislature.

The other reversal is on previous cases which said that in order to avoid violation of due process, there must be an exemption for the health of the mother. Here, "health" only extends up to the point where the mother is going to die.

In this case, kennedy wrote that in light of uncertainty about the necessity of the procedure, the abortion could be limited because of the state's legitimate interest in preserving life. he justifies a default decision against choice by taking note of "the intense bond of love between a mother and her child," and the great regret of mothers who have abortions, including "loss of self-esteem and depression." Ginsburg had written in prior decisions about the role of paternalist, patriarchal conceptions of women and motherhood in limiting a woman's right to choose and rips into Kennedy for bringing up some of those nuggets.

Temporary relief to all the sluts out there, though, because this really doesn't change anything, as IDX is usually performed in cases of hydrocephaly or ectopic pregnancy where the baby will not fit through the hip girdle without drainage or the mother is bleeding to death. Also since there is a narrow legislative definition of pba in which the fetus has to emerge from the vagina to a certain degree before they snuff it they might not have actually banned the procedure they intended to. The issue really is that the court made a couple of significant revesals over prior law.