The Supreme Court upheld a ban on partial-birth abortion, and included in its majority opinion the congressional finding that partial-birth abortion is "a gruesome and inhumane procedure that is never medically necessary and should be prohibited."Under the old policy, children capable of surviving outside the womb could have been terminated as long as their heads were still inside the womb. Now abortions are only legal if the child is fully inside the mother's womb at the point of its death.
For abortion opponents, the decision is a beginning. Catholic writer Cathy Ruse called it a "small but significant victory", noting how the trial "forced abortion supporters out from behind the word ‘choice'" and to admit that "babies are alive during partial-birth abortion."
The decision presumably won't reduce the number of late-term abortions, which statisticians estimate occur anywhere between 2,200 and 10,000 times annually. Abortion doctors can still perform Dilation and Evacuation abortion, in which as pro-choice Doctor Michelman described it, the "fetus is literally torn apart, can still be performed on children at any point before birth."
Abortion advocates think the Court went too far in curtailing abortion rights. Hillary Clinton expressed her belief that any restriction on abortion is one too many, "It is precisely this erosion of our constitutional rights that I warned against when I opposed the nominations of Chief Justice Roberts and Justice Alito."
