by Michele Jackson

Created on: August 05, 2007

The right to an abortion will cease to exist in the United States of America probably within the next twenty years. The April 2007 U.S. Supreme Court decision Gonzales v. Carhart has changed the course of abortion-rights history in America. For the first-time the Court upheld a national ban on a specific type of mid-term and late-term abortion procedure, called "intact dilation and extraction" or D & X, ruling that the government has "a legitimate and substantial interest in preserving and promoting fetal life."

Parental notification, parental consent, informed consent and other similar legislation help people to make informed choices about the abortion procedure, but they do not fundamentally address the abortion procedure itself. Gonzales v. Carhart in a 5-4 decision changed this by upholding the Partial-Birth Abortion Ban Act of 2003 which criminalize D & X abortion. Gonzales v. Carhart would not have been such a close decision, if it were not for President George Bush who asked the U.S. Congress to place Samuel Alito Jr. on the Supreme Court. Justice Alito replaced Justice Sandra Day O'Connor who retired. Alito was the pivotal Justice in deciding Gonzales v. Carhart. Justice O'Connor consistently decided in favor of abortion rights. She struck down a similar mid-term and late-term abortion procedure ban seven years ago.

Abortion became a woman's right with the Supreme Court's 1970 Roe v. Wade decision. Before Gonzales v. Carhart, Roe v. Wade had been interpreted by the Supreme Court to allow no restriction on the abortion procedure itself. But in Gonzales v. Carhart the Supreme Court Justice Anthony Kennedy wrote that the government has "an interest in promoting respect for human life at all stages in the pregnancy. The law need not give abortion doctors unfettered choice in the course of their medical practice."

Justice Anthony Kennedy wrote the opinion for Gonzales v. Carhart. Supporting his opinion were Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr., Justice Antonin Scalia and Justice Clarence Thomas. The Justices opposed to the decision are Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, Justice David Souter, Justice John Paul Stevens and Justice Stephen Breyer. The Justices who voted to uphold a ban on D & X have shown themselves favorable to restricting the types of abortions performed legally in all three trimesters and to possibly overturning Roe v. Wade. They may realistically be able to express this favor since now a majority exists on the Supreme Court favorable to reversing the

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