Supreme Court Ruling in Abortion Ban Case Disastrous for Women’s Health and Safety, Says Feminist Majority

WASHINGTON, April 18 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ — The following statement
was issued today by Eleanor Smeal, President of Feminist Majority:
In upholding the Bush Administration’s abortion ban in Gonzales v.
Carhart, the Bush-stacked majority of the U.S. Supreme Court showed its
true colors: that it does not care about the health, well-being, and safety
of American women. In this first decision on abortion of the newly
constituted majority, without Sandra Day O’Connor, Bush appointees John
Roberts and Samuel Alito did what they were put on the Court to do –
strike a blow against women’s fundamental right to choose abortion.
Elections matter: this ban is the consequence of a Republican,
ideologically-driven president and Congress, which ignored the
science-based opinions of such leading medical authorities as the American
College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists in passing this ban and signing
it into law.
Already, the decision in Gonzales v. Carhart will mean that women with
troubled pregnancies will be forced into more dangerous situations, putting
their future ability to have safe and healthy pregnancies at risk. Older
women will be especially affected, as amniocentesis results are released
later in the pregnancy. The health and safety of adolescents and pre-teens
will also be more at risk, as they are often forced to delay their
decisions about whether to abort because of lack of control over their own
lives or inadequate funds.
This case must serve as a wake-up call to American women that their
right to a safe, legal abortion is not only being chipped away, but
frontally assaulted. Principled supporters of women’s health and safety in
the Senate must stand up against any future Bush appointments to the
Supreme Court who will not uphold Roe v. Wade and preserve women’s
fundamental rights, because women’s lives are on the line.

SOURCE Feminist Majority