In a 5-4 decision, the Supreme Court upheld the nation's first abortion procedure ban and rejected the health exception that had been guaranteed by Roe v. Wade since 1973.
The five justices in the majority of the Gonzales v. Carhart ruling, including Chief Justice John Roberts and Associate Justice Samuel Alito-both installed by Bush and a Republican-majority Senate-ruled that the law, even without a health exception, does not violate a woman's constitutional right to abortion.
Because the new law is so vague, it essentially bans the most common abortion procedure after 12 weeks of pregnancy, even if there is a serious threat to the woman's health. Only seven years ago, the Supreme Court ...