The U.S. House of Representatives set into motion on Oct. 2 a clearly unconstitutional ban that would, if passed by the Senate and not vetoed by the president, ban partial-birth abortion.
The House approved the Partial-Birth Abortion Ban Act of 2003 in a 281-142 vote, and President Bush said in an Associated Press article he would sign the bill into law if it gets to his desk.
Let me stress the fact that I neither endorse nor condone the procedure of partial-birth abortion. The moral issues that constantly surround the abortion issue are not even taken into consideration in this column. I am addressing the constitutionality of this issue, not whether the procedure it deals with is morally right or wrong.
| “Banning partial-birth abortion easily could be used as a springboard to end all types of abortion and further limit women’s rights.” |
The Supreme Court ruled in the 1973 case of Roe v. Wade that abortion, in all forms, is legal. This legal precedent includes partial-birth abortion, which is a procedure in which a fetus is partially delivered before a doctor punctures its skull. Under the Supreme Court ruling, this procedure, despite what people may want to believe, is protected by the Constitution.
Roe v. Wade gives women the right to access medical procedures, including abortion, throughout their pregnancies. This right includes the birthing process and ultimately gives women the right to end their pregnancies whenever they choose.
The Supreme Court basically gave women a right to control their bodies and decide what to do about pregnancy. It gave them the right to decide the fate of every pregnancy they have.
There is another reason this ban should not be passed. Banning partial-birth abortion easily could be used as a springboard to end all types of abortion and further limit women’s rights. If the bill passes, the government would say that partial-birth abortion is wrong, which could allow opponents of abortion to use this ban as a precedent to press for a complete ban of abortion.
The government would open up a can of worms by banning a type of abortion because, if the ban holds up against the appeals of pro-choice groups, the floodgates will be open to ban all types of abortion.
If the government starts limiting the types of abortion a woman can receive, it is only a short jump to the complete ban of abortion, which is completely in violation of the rights guaranteed to women by the Supreme Court.
The point of this ban would be to end partial-birth abortion, but in reality it isn’t going to do that at all, even if it is passed.
The punishment for violating the ban is stated as two years of jail time for any doctor caught providing this procedure. There is no punishment for women who are asking for the abortion. This may be more ridiculous than the ban itself when considering the effects of such a punishment.
This ban will not stop women from trying to end their pregnancies, and in actuality, it will force women who want or need this procedure to turn to less respectable people for the operation.
It is nave to think that making a procedure illegal will prevent it from happening.
Qualified doctors will be less likely to do anything to tarnish their reputations or make them risk jail time, and women who want abortions would be likely to resort to unlicensed, disreputable physicians for the treatment. There always will be someone who is willing to take the risk of doing the operation for the right price, but in all likelihood such individuals will not be the best-trained doctors and will not be providing safe and clean procedures. This law may lead to more botched surgeries and potential deaths of the women involved.
Outlawing partial-birth abortion won’t stop women from wanting the procedure and neither will cracking down on the doctors. If women can’t find a good doctor, or even a less-qualified one willing to give them the abortion, they may take matters into their own hands. We will see more people leaving babies in dumpsters or accidentally killing themselves in the process of attempting to end their pregnancies. If the point of this ban is to save lives, the government obviously isn’t seeing the bigger picture.
At the very least, by keeping abortion legal in all forms, we can ensure that women with unwanted pregnancies, if they should choose to have an abortion, can find qualified, trained doctors to help them do what they will find a way to do anyway.
Heidke is a senior print journalism and creative writing major and is a freelance columnist for The Spectator.
