YDA Statement on Supreme Court Decision on Federal Abortion Ban
WASHINGTON, DC - Today, the United States Supreme Court ruled that the health care decisions of women should be made by politicians, not medical doctors. By a 5-4 vote, the Court endangered the health and safety of women by rejecting two legal challenges to the ban criminalizing abortions in the second trimester of pregnancy that President George W. Bush signed in 2003.
"The health, safety and privacy of women belong in the hands of patients and their doctors, not politicians," said Alexandra Acker, Executive Director of the Young Democrats of America. "The Court has jeopardized women's lives by making the misguided ideology of President Bush the law of the land."
Justices Ruth Bader Ginsburg, John Paul Stevens, David Souter and Stephen Breyer all dissented. Justice Ginsburg read part of the dissenting opinion from the bench, a rare occurrence.
"In candor, the Partial Birth Abortion Act and the court's defense of it cannot be understood as anything other than an effort to chip away at a right declared again and again by this court - and with increasing comprehension of its centrality to women's lives," Ginsburg said
This narrow decision marks the first time that a federal law banning a specific abortion procedure has been upheld since Roe v. Wade was ruled upon in 1973. That landmark decision held that women are constitutionally guaranteed a right to abortion.
"This is clearly the handiwork of right-wing ideologues like the President's appointees Alito and Roberts," said Acker. "The Roberts Court decision highlights the responsibility young Americans have to elect a President who will protect the health and safety of women, rather than the ideology of the Republican base vote."
For more information, visit www.federalabortionban.org.
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The Young Democrats of America (YDA) is the nation's largest youth-led partisan political organization dedicated to building a solid youth voting bloc of Democrats nationwide.
Contact:
Alexandra Acker - office@yda.org | 202-639-8585
