I just returned from our Office of Government Affairs in Washington, DC, and wanted to give you an update on our legislative activities there. The Supreme Court has set November 8th for the oral arguments in both partial-birth abortion cases. This is the first substantive abortion case the Supreme Court has taken since the addition of Chief Justice Roberts and Associate Justice Alito. As Im sure most of you are aware, we represent members of Congress who sponsored the legislation. We have filed friend-of-the-court briefs in both cases with the Supreme Court. To view them, just click on the case name: Gonzales v. Carhart (Nebraska) and Gonzales v. Planned Parenthood (California).
On September 15th, I will be arguing the Governments position before a moot court at the College of William & Mary's Supreme Court Preview. This important event gives advocates a chance to try out their arguments before a panel of justices made up primarily of leading Supreme Court reporters. A lawyer from Planned Parenthood will be representing their interests in this moot court. These moot courts serve a number of purposes. Foremost, we have the ability to convey arguments and test them prior to the arguments being delivered to the Supreme Court. In the partial-birth abortion cases, the United States Solicitor General will be arguing the case. I will have an opportunity to try out a number of the arguments that are presented in the briefs in this moot court setting to gauge reaction. We will also have the privilege of meeting with students and sharing our prospective on this important issue. I have assembled a team of our students from Regent University to help me prepare for this moot court.
Its very troubling that part of the legal argument in this case centers on the false assertion that abortion is actually safer than childbirth. That assertion is not only false but absurd! The fact is that partial-birth abortion not only takes the life of the child through a barbaric procedure, but represents a significant health risk to the mother. With two cases now before the high court involving the constitutionality of the national ban on partial-birth abortion, we are hopeful the Justices will, once and for all, put an end to this horrific procedure that can only be described as infanticide.
In our brief on the California case, we addressed the disturbing misconception that abortion has been proven to be safer than childbirth, and asserted that the comparison of maternal mortality and abortion mortality statistics is akin to mixing apples and orangesthey cannot be compared one-to-one. Further, we asserted that the comparison is invalid because the data itself is inaccurate and incomplete. We also cited numerous published research studies in this country and abroad that strongly indicate[] that abortion, rather than being safer than childbirth, is in fact more dangerous.
Our brief concluded: In sum, there is ample reason to believe that abortion is detrimental to maternal health, if anything, more likely to lead to death or other adverse consequences than is continuing the pregnancy. This Court should take with a very large grain of salt any assertion that abortion is healthy for women, much less some sort of panacea. There is good reason to believe precisely the contrary.
In the California case, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit upheld a lower court ruling declaring the national ban on partial-birth abortion unconstitutional. In addition, the high court is considering a case out of Nebraska where lower courts rejected the constitutionality of the ban as well. In the Nebraska case, we filed an amicus brief with the high court representing nearly 80 members of Congress and more than 320,000 Americans asking the high court to uphold the ban.
To view a sampling of our press releases about these cases, just click on the title below:
The Supreme Court Now Has 2 Opportunities to End Partial-Birth Abortion
ACLJ Asks Supreme Court to Reject False Assertion That Abortion is Safer Than Childbirth in Brief Field in CA Partial-Birth Abortion Case
The Supreme Court & Partial-Birth Abortion