Statement by State Senator Liz Krueger on Supreme Court Decision Upholding Federal Abortion Ban

I am deeply disturbed that today, the United States Supreme Court ruled to uphold a right-wing piece of legislation that bans a type of rarely performed, late-term, medically necessary abortion known in the medical profession as "intact dilatation and extraction or intact D and X." Women who face this medical decision do so with a great deal of emotional and physical distress, and do so under direct medical supervision of their respected doctor.

In playing politics with women's health, the Court has made a stunning, and irresponsible reversal by overturning more than 30 years of legal affirmation of a woman's right to choose.  The justices have determined that abortions may be banned even when a woman's doctor finds it medically necessary to protecting her health.

The Court's sharply divided 5-4 decision underscores that even in 2007, a woman's right to choose remains under attack. I am appalled by the Court's decision to place right-wing ideology above scientific fact, and the majority's inability to fully grasp the very constitutional issues with which they are charged with upholding.

I applaud Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg for using her dissenting opinion to publicly reaffirm what many of us believe: that the majority's opinion can only be read as an effort to "chip away a right declared again and again by this court, and with increasing comprehension of its centrality to women's lives."

This is a bad day for women's health and rights.

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