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November 7, 2003 - Prior to President Bush signing the partial birth abortion ban, Planned Parenthood, the Center for Reproductive Rights, and the American Civil Liberties Union representing the National Abortion Federation were prepared with paperwork in hand to have the federal courts block this legislation.
In Nebraska, U.S. District Judge Richard Kopf, one hour after President Bush signed the federal legislation, issued a temporary restraining order on the legislation at the behest of four doctors.
Dr. LeRoy Carhart, one of the plaintiffs stated: “[He is] challenging [the] new federal ban for the same reasons [he] challenged the Nebraska abortion ban … As a doctor, it is my duty to use the safest procedures I have available once a patient decides to terminate her pregnancy.”
The partial-birth abortion procedure allows a doctor to induce labor up to and into the 9th month of pregnancy. The child may then be partially delivered either in a head-first presentation where the child’s head is entirely outside the body of the mother, or, in the case of breech presentation, any part of the baby’s body past its navel is outside the body of the mother whereupon the attending physician will insert surgical scissors or a knife into the head of the child, destroy its brain (killing the child), and legally deliver a fetus.
President Bush, at the signing of the partial-birth abortion ban, noted that "the best case against partial-birth abortion is a simple description of what happens - and to whom it happens." "It involves the partial delivery of a live boy or girl and a sudden, violent end of that life.”
In New York, U.S. District Judge Richard Casey issued a second court injunction on behalf of the National Abortion Federation and its members (doctors) who perform half of the abortions nationwide. Judge Casey noted that “the plaintiffs (doctors) would suffer irreparable harm without a court injunction.” Judge Casey recognizes that the federal legislation will reduce the PROFITS and ability of the NAF membership to make a PROFIT if partial-birth abortion is banned.
Senator John F. Kerry declared at a Planned Parenthood forum on women’s issues, saying “there is no such thing as a partial birth, it is a late-term abortion…” as he and the other Democratic presidential contenders sought the political support of women voters. “It's part of their assault on the rights of women in America. . . . There's nothing partial about their effort to
undo Roe v. Wade.”
Of course Roe v. Wade was the landmark case that effectively declared an unborn baby to be a non-person—that is they have no legal rights or standing.
Historically, Roe v. Wade was not a foreign ruling. Germany in 1935 declared in the Nuremberg Laws that German Jew’s were non-persons, excluded them from citizenship and enacted other ordinances that disenfranchised Jews from all rights.
Similarly, the famous Dred Scott case of 1857 declared that a Negro slave was, a non-person. Led by Chief Justice Roger B. Taney, the United States Supreme Court declared that all blacks – slaves as well as free – were not and could never become citizens of the United States.
Chief Justice Taney, an ardent Democrat and staunch supporter of slavery, intent on protecting southerners from northern aggression, wrote in the Court’s majority opinion that, because Scott was black, he was not a citizen and therefore had no right to sue. Justice Taney in his statement declared that the slave “was bought and sold and treated as an ordinary article of merchandise and traffic, whenever PROFIT could be made by it."
Although disappointed, Frederick Douglass, in 1857, announced, "my hopes were never brighter than now." For Douglass, the decision would bring slavery to the attention of the nation and was a step toward slavery's ultimate destruction.
President Bush at the signing ceremony recognized that a bright moment existed stating: "Today at last, the American people and our government have confronted the violence" of partial-birth abortion "and come to the defense of the innocent child…Our nation owes its children a different and better welcome."
Doesn’t America stand for liberty, for the pursuit of happiness and for the unalienable right of life. Is it not the duty of government to defend the life of the innocent, the vulnerable?
Of course pro-choice supporters could not get Congress to back off from this legislation, they readied by turning to activist judges to legislate from the bench—sanctioning infanticide.
R.D. Skidmore is a professor at Pierce College in Woodland Hills, Ca. He may be contacted at rskidmor49@excite.com
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