US bishops join Supreme Court plea to uphold partial-birth abortion ban
May. 24 (CWNews.com) - The US bishops' conference has joined several other religious bodies in a plea to the US Supreme Court to uphold a ban on partial-birth abortion.
In an amicus curiae brief, filed in the case of Gonzales v. Carhart, the US Conference of Catholic Bishops joined with the Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission of the Southern Baptist Convention, the International Church of the Foursquare Gospel, the Greek Orthodox Archdiocese of America, and the Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod in asking the Court to reverse a lower court's ruling that a statewide ban on partial-birth abortion in Nebraska was unconstitutional.
The lower federal court had ruled that the Nebraska law violates the principles set by the Supreme Court in the 2000 case Stenberg v. Carhart. In that earlier case the Supreme Court sided with opponents of the ban, who said that the law was unduly vague and restricted a woman's legal right to obtain an abortion. The USCCB and its allies argued that the new Nebraska law is more tightly worded, specifically banning a procedure in which the child is killed while most of its body is outside the mother's womb. "Congress could conclude, as it did here, that the challenged ban is necessary to preserve the distinction between abortion and infanticide and to prevent the latter," the brief argued.
The religious groups argued, too, that the Supreme Court's acceptance of legal abortion is based on the faulty logic of the Roe v. Wade decision, which should be re-examined by the current court. The brief argued that "the error of Roe" should be "more fully and explicitly acknowledged and corrected."
Praise the Lord! It is encouraging to see clergy from various denominations working together to fight this battle.
In an amicus curiae brief, filed in the case of Gonzales v. Carhart, the US Conference of Catholic Bishops joined with the Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission of the Southern Baptist Convention, the International Church of the Foursquare Gospel, the Greek Orthodox Archdiocese of America, and the Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod in asking the Court to reverse a lower court's ruling that a statewide ban on partial-birth abortion in Nebraska was unconstitutional.
The lower federal court had ruled that the Nebraska law violates the principles set by the Supreme Court in the 2000 case Stenberg v. Carhart. In that earlier case the Supreme Court sided with opponents of the ban, who said that the law was unduly vague and restricted a woman's legal right to obtain an abortion. The USCCB and its allies argued that the new Nebraska law is more tightly worded, specifically banning a procedure in which the child is killed while most of its body is outside the mother's womb. "Congress could conclude, as it did here, that the challenged ban is necessary to preserve the distinction between abortion and infanticide and to prevent the latter," the brief argued.
The religious groups argued, too, that the Supreme Court's acceptance of legal abortion is based on the faulty logic of the Roe v. Wade decision, which should be re-examined by the current court. The brief argued that "the error of Roe" should be "more fully and explicitly acknowledged and corrected."
Praise the Lord! It is encouraging to see clergy from various denominations working together to fight this battle.
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