by Rod D. Martin
April 18, 2007

In a 5-4 decision, the Supreme Court today upheld the ban on Partial-Birth Abortion.

George W. Bush’s Supreme Court appointments — Roberts and Alito — made the difference, along with Kennedy, Thomas and Scalia. Alito, who replaced Sandra Day O’Connor, in so doing also replaced the Court’s swing vote for what even the pro-abortion AMA has called “a barbaric procedure” and “never medically necessary”.

For those who’ve decided the Presidency doesn’t matter, or that a Republican Congress (which we no longer have) can better restrain spending with a Democrat President, the message is perfectly clear: a Hillary or an Obama would have appointed another Ruth Bader Ginsburg to the Court, turning this 5-4 victory for life into a 6-3 defeat. Right now, Roe v. Wade itself is on the ropes. One more Republican Presidency could finish it; one more Democrat could keep it on the books for a generation.

Thank you to all of you who worked on this fight. Thousands of NFRA members have petitioned the Supreme Court since October, asking them to do the right thing. We’ll never know if that made a difference, but we know it didn’t hurt; and it was extremely important that the Justices know how the American people feel.

Oh, and one sidebar: in the aftermath of the decision, Rudy Giuliani hailed the decision as “correct”. While not the most ringing endorsement imaginable, this is definitely a huge step forward from his 2000 U.S. Senate campaign, when he was a strong supporter of partial-birth abortion. While this doesn’t exactly mitigate his calling for taxpayer-funded abortions for all, it is a hopeful sign, and we encourage him again to rethink his position on this most important of issues. I suspect he’d find millions of new supporters if he did.