…when democrats now have the majority in both houses?
Can the high court decide this all by them selves?
I wouldn’t jump to conclusions too quickly, Wildfire. This crop of new democrats are pretty moderate, and I remember one of the talking head shows discussing how at least a couple of them are pro-life. Ellsworth out of Indiana is one, and I think Bob Casey might be another, IIRC.
Of course not. The fight over abortion is no more “won” than it was back in '93 when Democrats controlled all of Congress and the Presidency. The people who wish to ban abortion still exist, still feel strongly about it, and may decide that abortion is their primary issue again in a few years.
Normally, a Democratic takeover of Congress would mean that Bush would have to be more careful to appoint judges whose position on abortion is murkier; but several of the new Democrats elected (most notably Senators Webb and Casey) are pro-life, which means that Bush may well still be able to get majorities for strongly pro-life judges.
I’m not the Constitutional lawyer others on the board are, but from my understanding, the closest that the Supreme Court can come to “banning” abortion is to decide that abortion is not an issue that Congress can have a say in Constitutionally, which means that it becomes strictly an issue for the individual states to decide whether they wish to ban or allow abortion.
I’m pretty sure that efforts to restrict or even ban abortion will continue. Since the right to abortion was decided by the US Supreme Court “all by itself” in 1973, it can certainly do the reverse. Reversing the 1973 decision would not ban abortion; it would allow the states to pass their own laws on the subject. Some would ban, some would restrict, some would allow nearly unrestricted access.
Has there been a serious push to ban abortion while Bush (and a Republican congress) controlled the government? I haven’t seen any serious efforts along those lines…just a lot of chicken little predictions that the sky is falling, coupled with a lot of fretting and hand wringing by the left. Whats the evidence that there was a serious effort to ban abortion in the US?
-XT
wasn’t there a votum about this issue in one state under this election?
The failure of the South Dakota abortion ban probably has more repercussions for the RTL movement than the Congressional race outcome. A pretty conservative state turned down an absolute ban on abortion. That probably means any strategy that would make all abortions illegal across the land is going to be problematic, whereas incremental stuff might find better footholds.
That doesn’t represent a major departure from their recent-year tactics, where “incremental” has been their approach: gnaw away a little here, a little there, always making it just a little bit harder to get abortions.
I’ll say what I always say, more abortions, less criminals.
-
The South Dakota state legislature passed a law banning all non-medical abortions. All abortion clinics in the state have been shut down.
-
The Mississippi legislature passed laws severely restricting access to abortion, and all but one abortion clinic in the state have been shut down.
-
Numerous states have passed parental notification laws and other measures that outlaw minors from getting abortions.
-
Numerous states have passed laws requing women to wait 24 hours or more between requesting an abortion and having the procedure, and requiring that women be given incorrect medical information when they request an abortion.
-
etc…
Yes, it’s over. And James Dobson has just converted to Islam.
ITR, none of those efforts was at the federal level and none of those efforts will be affected by the current makeup of Congress.
To answer the OP, while there are certainly some in the U.S. who want to ban abortion, this is not an issue for which there is any broad public support. The likelihood of banning abortion across the U.S. through federal legislation is the same now as it was on November 8: 0%.
Webb is pro-choice. Ford is pro-life, and had he been elected, he’d be one of the most conservative Dems in the Senate.
People with strong feelings about contentious issues don’t stop planning when control of a portion of the government changes hands. They just change strategies. Don’t expect issues of abortion, gun control, freedom of speech, privacy, search & seizure, and so forth to go away. Ever.
The Supreme Court can decide on the constitutionality of an existing law. They cannot pass new laws, change the phrasing of laws, change the Constitution, or add caveats to existing laws. All they can do is strike down laws that they agree are in conflict with the Constitution as it stands.
Short answer is no.
On the question of whether SCOTUS could ban abortion outright by itself, I suppose it might find that the fetal “right to life” is a right “fundamental to the concept of ordered liberty,” and that any state regulation (that would legalize forms of abortion) to the contrary would be unconstitutional. But that’s exceedingly far-fetched in our current climate.
That’s misleading, if not quite untrue.
a) They passed it
b) Via the power to put things to referendum, the issue was put before the voters instead;
c) The voters on South Dakota just rejected it; it’s dead, Jim.
Haven’t they decided this in 1972?
Yes. xtisme asked for evidence of “serious” intent to ban abortions. What I’ve cited is surely serious and surely indicative of efforts to put abortion out of reach of ordinay women. Sure it’s not at the federal level, but it exists. It’s not as if there’s two disjoint classes of Republican voters, one that elects state legislatures while the other elects Congresscritters. What happens at the state level indicates what th party wants to do at the federal level.
As long as the question of when human life begins exists, so will the abortion issue.
I wish the Republicans would officially make it a plank of their party to ban abortion. I also wish that, if they truly believe in their cause, to attempt as much as possible to reach that goal, whether it be speeches, legislation, commercials, pamphlets, etc.
If not, maybe they should shut up about it.
I hope so. I’m so sick and tired of the religious whackos trying to forcibly inject their superstitious BS into the lives of the women who want the abortions.