Missouri First State to Feel Fallout of Last Week’s Supreme Court Decision
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE April 23, 2007 Missouri First State to Feel Fallout of Last Week’s Supreme Court Decision St. Louis—The consequences of last Wednesday’s Supreme Court decision upholding the Federal Abortion Ban even though it made no exception for the health of the woman have been felt today in Missouri. Last week, for the first time in 35 years, the Court both upheld a ban on a specific abortion procedure and upheld a ban without a waiver for the woman’s health. Ending litigation over a law that was passed by the General Assembly in 1999, the Supreme Court today issued a two-line order in a pending case involving Missouri’s own ban on a particular abortion procedure that contains no health exception. The rare procedure is used in cases where the woman’s health is at risk and where there is severe and irreversible fetal anomaly. In its terse order, the high court directed its decision in last week’s case to be applied to the Missouri case. “Today’s decision is not unexpected. When the Supreme Court of the United States issued a ruling that departed from the essential root of Roe v. Wade by allowing legislatures to write laws that disregard women’s health, the lower courts must apply that ruling whether they like it or not. Lower courts will also apply the ruling to similar statutes under review in pending cases,” said NARAL Pro-Choice Missouri’s Pamela Sumners, a constitutional lawyer. “It is alarming when the rule of law and respect for precedent are assailed at any level of the judiciary, including the Supreme Court. That happened last week, and the fact that it did gives some cause to question the commitment to settled law that both Chief Justices Roberts and Justice Alito claimed during their confirmation hearings.” “Results like these underscore that elections matter,” Sumners said. “100 million Americans stayed home from the polls in November 2004, and George Bush was able to appoint two justices who have switched the balance from 5-4 in favor of Roe’s respect for privacy and women’s health to 5-4 against these principles,” Sumners stated. “While only one rare abortion procedure has been federally banned and abortion remains legal in the first and second trimesters of pregnancy, the Supreme Court has given a green light to state legislatures like Missouri’s to pass more and more restrictions aimed at making abortion inaccessible if not illegal,” Sumners said. NARAL Pro-Choice Missouri, the state’s largest grassroots advocacy organization devoted to reproductive rights, has vowed to redouble its efforts to elect more candidates who respect women’s health and the right of privacy. “Problems with the courts start with problems with the political system,” Sumners stated. “We have to fix those.” -30- CONTACT: PamelaSumners, Esq. 312-213-1725 or 314-531-8616
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