Anti-abortion measures were among the most divisive social issues on Election Day ballots, and we were encouraged with the voters’ sensible verdicts this year. We only hope the Supreme Court was paying attention.
Citizens in South Dakota, California and Oregon rejected efforts to impose state restrictions on abortion in order to undermine federal law.
South Dakota spoke with the loudest voice, repealing a highly controversial law that made it a felony for anyone to help a woman end her pregnancy, except to save the life of the mother. The law passed by the South Dakota legislature last winter was intended to be a vehicle for challenging Roe vs. Wade, the 1973 Supreme Court ruling legalizing abortion.
In Oregon and California, voters defeated measures that would have required a waiting period and parental notification by doctors before performing an abortion on a minor. In both states, the outcome was 54-46 percent, reflecting the nation’s pro-choice majority.
Thirty-five states already have laws requiring various sorts of parental involvement in an abortion decision. Colorado law requires written notice and a 48-hour wait after notification.
Voters in Kansas also made their voices heard on the abortion issue, defeating Attorney General Phill Kline, who had touted his unconscionable efforts to seize women’s medical records from abortion clinics. (A look at Congress shows that voters replaced about 20 lawmakers who opposed abortion rights with those who support such rights.)
Of course, when it comes to abortion, the issue always seems destined for resolution by the U.S. Supreme Court.
Last Wednesday, justices heard arguments in a case that challenges the constitutionality of a 2003 federal prohibition on partial-birth abortion. The court is revisiting the issue for the first time since the appointments of Chief Justice John Roberts and Justice Samuel Alito. Justices will be considering whether the three-year-old law passed by Congress and signed by President Bush applies even when a woman’s life is at risk. Congress made no exception to preserve a woman’s health, an omission that prompted three U.S. appeals courts to declare the federal ban unconstitutional. Partial-birth abortion is a gruesome procedure that should be used only as a last resort, but the health of the mother should be made an exception to any ban. And ultimately, the fundamental question of abortion should remain a private medical decision between a woman and her doctor.
