OBAMA MARKS ROE V. WADE BY "REDOUBLING COMMITMENT TO CONSTITUTIONAL RIGHT"
TO ABORTION
BY HEATHER CLARK
republished below in full unedited for informational, educational, and research purposes
WASHINGTON — On the day marking 43 years since the issuance of the U.S. Supreme Court’s opinion in Roe v. Wade, which has resulted in the deaths of nearly 60 million American babies and counting through “legalized” abortion, Barack Obama released a statement “redoubling” his commitment to the “Constitutional right” to abortion.“Today, we mark the 43rd anniversary of the Supreme Court ruling in Roe v. Wade, which affirmed a woman’s freedom to make her own choices about her body and her health,”he wrote as thousands of Americans took to the streets of the nation’s capital for the annual “March for Life.” “The decision supports the broader principle that the government should not intrude on private decisions made between a woman and her doctor.”“As we commemorate this day, we also redouble our commitment to protecting these constitutional rights, including protecting a woman’s access to safe, affordable health care and her right to reproductive freedom from efforts to undermine or overturn them,” Obama said.He concluded his statement by declaring that “[i]n America, every single one of us deserves the rights, freedoms, and opportunities to fulfill our dreams.” Some have interpreted Obama’s remark as meaning that abortion provides a means for Americans to realize their dreams.Obama made similar statements last year in proclaiming that women should have equality with men.“Today, as we reflect on this critical moment in our history, may we all rededicate ourselves to ensuring that our daughters have the same rights, freedoms, and opportunities as our sons,” he said on the 42nd commemoration of Roe.Obama’s assertion, however, is not the first of its kind made by the federal government. As previously reported, in 1992, U.S. Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O’Connor, appointed to the bench by Ronald Reagan, contended that abortion is necessary so that women can have active social and professional lives.“For two decades of economic and social developments, people have organized intimate relationships and made choices that define their views of themselves and their places in society, in reliance on the availability of abortion in the event that contraception should fail,” O’Connor wrote on behalf of the nation’s highest court in Planned Parenthood v. Casey.“The ability of women to participate equally in the economic and social life of the nation has been facilitated by their ability to control their reproductive lives,” she said.Earlier this month, the Obama administration asked the U.S. Supreme Court to strike down new abortion regulations in Texas that some say would close most of the abortion facilities in the state. Texas officials are being sued over the requirement for abortionists to obtain admitting privileges at a hospital within 30 miles, and for abortion facilities to meet the standards of surgical centers.“Those requirements are unnecessary to protect—indeed, would harm—women’s health, and they would result in closure of three quarters of the abortion clinics in the state,” wrote U.S. Solicitor General Donald Verrilli.There were 42 abortion facilities in Texas prior to the passage of the law, and 19 currently remain open. Opponents of the regulations state that the number would shrink to 10 should all the facets of the law be upheld.The high court is expected to rule in the case in June.
