My position on this subject has been made infinitely clear, so there is little chance of me being purely objective.
In any event, I would like to thank U.S. District Judge Richard Casey for seeing past his personal beliefs and declaring the "Partial Birth" Abortion Ban unconstitutional for lack of a mother's health exception.
He is not, of course, the first, nor will he need to be the last, but it's another step in the right direction.
Of course, "pro-life" groups everywhere are up in arms, whining about how the black-robed, liberal, activist [insert over-used phrase here] judges are ignoring the will of the people.
Gary Bauer of American Values says the ruling is "another unfortunate example of how badly our system of checks and balances has been skewed against the people," and that "Congress, after hearing from dozens of medical experts [during the PABA hearings], could find no health reason that required a partial-birth abortion."
I can't seem to figure out, after having every single "Partial Birth" Abortion Ban declared unconstitutional for the lack of a health exception, why someone wouldn't think to include one, especially given that there are supposedly no health reasons. If there are no reasons that the health exception could be invoked, why not just give in? Why not write a health exception into the Ban?
The "pro-life" groups are convinced that the health exception will be misused. I've been told that all of the "partial birth" abortions performed in Kansas were performed for "mental health" reasons. If you're not reading that like a conspiracy theorist, you should be.
I have yet to hear of a single case where a woman made it through their pregnancy to the point where an abortion would be considered "partial birth" (more on that in a moment) and suddenly decided, for no reason other than whim, not to finish it out. If anyone, anywhere has got one, I would love to hear it. I'm not too worried.
It just does not happen. The purpose of these bans is to play on the emotions of people on the fence on the abortion issue. The non-lemming members of the pro-life brigade know that a) "partial birth" abortion is not what they say it is and b)that it is seldom used. These bans serve to win the people in the middle over. It's really as simple as that.
