Gonzales v. Carhart a great battle won but the war goes on...

I am sure many of you are aware of the great step forward for the Culture of Life last week with the Supreme Court upholding the ban on partial-birth abortion in the Gonzales v. Carhart case. This was a great litmus test for our Supreme Court. It was the first Culture of Death vs. Culture of Life case to come before the them since Alito and Roberts were appointed by Bush. All five Catholic Justices voted to uphold the ban. Yet, this doesn't mean that any Culture of Life issues that come before the Court are going to fall this way. Justice Anthony Kennedy, who is Catholic, voted to uphold the ban but he is what is considered the "swing vote" meaning that he is sometimes pro-life and sometimes not. The other Catholic Justices - Clarence Thomas, Antonin Scalia, John Roberts and Samual Alito - seem to be solid in their voting for Culture of Life issues.

The reason this vote was important, however, is that it shows that Roe v. Wade is NOT untouchable. If restrictions can be placed on it then it can also be overturned. For so many years, Roe v. Wade was considered an absolute right with no limits because it was an  individual 'choice' one made. Of course, even individual choices have limits to its rights. For example, I do not have the right to choose to shoot the student two doors down from me because he is always playing his music too loud. I might do it (although that might affect my ability to complete my MA hence hindering my ordination - see I am now a priest-elect blog entry) but that isn't a right and as a matter of fact violates another person's rights. While this decision did not go as far as to speak of a person's rights, it did demonstrate that limits can be placed on abortion. That gives hope for the future. Until next time...God bless.

posted by: crossman at 20:38 | link | comments |
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