A U.S. Supreme Court decision is a victory for pro-life groups.
The High Court decision upholds the national ban on partial-birth abortions. Barbara Lyons, Executive Director of Wisconsin Right to Life , says it's a great day for unborn children in Wisconsin and across the country.
"Finally, after 15 long years the gruesome procedure known as partial birth abortion is outlawed in our country and in our state. It is just a tremendous victory for the babies who have been subjected to this horrible procedure."
Lyons says one shouldn't read too much into the ruling because Justice Anthony Kennedy, who wrote the majority opinion for this particular decision, has previously voted in favor of maintaining Roe vs. Wade. Naral Pro-Choice Executive Director Kelda Helen Roys says this 5-4 ruling shows very clearly that elections have consequences.
"We knew that (President George W.) Bush's appointees would be hostile to reproductive rights and we've seen that born out in today's decision. The court has staked out a very anti-choice direction."
Roys says a woman should be able to make health care decisions with her doctor, rather than politicians deciding what's right for her. The US Supreme Court says the partial-birth ban, which President Bush signed into law in 2003, does not violate a woman's constitutional right to an abortion. Lyons says we don't yet know what impact this ruling would have on the Wisconsin partial birth abortion ban, which is in the law books but currently under injunction.
Lyons points out; this ruling is a narrow victory, because only one procedure, which affects thousands of babies, has been banned. She says the ban does not get at the millions of babies that are aborted earlier in the gestational period.
The Partial Birth Abortion Ban Act of 2003 does allow this abortion procedure for certain cases in which a doctor deems a mother's life is threatened.
