Reading some of the negative reactions over yesterday's Supreme Court decision upholding the federal ban on partial birth abortion (examples here and here), one feels compelled to make an obvious statement: the Supreme Court did not ban partial birth abortions. It said that Congress has the ability to do so, within certain confines. If you think it is important to liberty and women's health that it remain legal to perform partial birth abortions, you have a very standard avenue of recourse. Work to change public opinion and elect members of Congress and a president who will vote to repeal this ban. I think this will be an uphill battle as this ban has passed multiple times in various versions with super-majorities, which is why it supporters want to rely on the Supreme Court to do their work for them.
A thing does not become a constitutional right simply because it is a really good thing. Thus one does not have a constitutional right to adequate food or shelter. Nor does a thing cease to be a constitutional right simply because it is a bad thing. Thus Abraham Lincoln could state that slave holders had a legal right under the Constitution to hold slaves while at the same time calling slavery a great evil. The simply fact is that regulation of abortion is something the Constitution does not address, and thus should be left to the basic police powers of the states to regulate (or not) as they see fit.
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