ERLC signs brief urging court’s support for partial-birth ban
- May 15, 2006
The ERLC has joined in a brief asking the Supreme Court to uphold a federal ban on partial-birth abortion.
The ERLC and three other religious organizations signed onto the friend-of-the-court brief filed May 19 by the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops. The Supreme Court will hear oral arguments in the case, Gonzales v. Carhart, during its next term, which begins in October.
The Partial-birth Abortion Ban Act, which was enacted in 2003 but has been blocked from enforcement and struck down by federal courts so far, prohibits a gruesome procedure typically used in the fifth or sixth month of pregnancy. In the method, an intact baby is delivered normally feet first until only the head is left in the birth canal. The doctor pierces the base of the infant’s skull with surgical scissors before inserting a catheter into the opening and suctioning out the brain. The technique provides for easier removal of the baby’s head.
The brief says the ban is not governed by previous high court opinions on abortion because it deals with the killing of a child who is largely outside the mother’s body. It also contends the law is constitutional, even if the justices’ previous decisions are applied, because it restricts only a method, not abortion itself. Another argument offered in the brief is that the Supreme Court’s abortion rulings, beginning with the 1973 Roe v. Wade opinion striking down all state bans, need to be re-examined.
“Southern Baptists are overwhelmingly opposed to abortion on demand and even more overwhelmingly opposed to the heinous and barbaric practice known as partial-birth abortion, where a partially born baby is killed,” ERLC President Richard Land said after the brief was filed.
“The Bible tells us life begins at conception and that children are an inheritance from God,” he said. “America has been like the prodigal son, taking the inheritance of our unborn children and wasting it in the riotous living of self-absorption and sacrificing our unborn children to the pagan gods of material well-being, social convention and career advancement. The ugliest part of the horribly ugly abortion issue is the killing of partially born babies.
“I would urge all Southern Baptists and people of goodwill to pray that God would give the Supreme Court justices the wisdom to uphold the banning of this barbaric and heinous practice,” Land said.
The SBC approved resolutions condemning the partial-birth procedure in both 1996 and 2002.
In addition to the ERLC, other organizations signing onto the USCCB brief were the Greek Orthodox Archdiocese of America, International Church of the Foursquare Gospel and Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod.
Three different appeals courts at the federal level have ruled the prohibition is unconstitutional, but pro-life advocates hope the January confirmation of Samuel Alito as an associate justice means the Supreme Court will reverse those decisions. Alito replaced retired Associate Justice Sandra Day O’Connor, who voted with a 5-4 majority that struck down a state ban on partial-birth abortion six years ago.