About That Hyperventilation
I predicted (like that took any great gift) that there would be much hyperventilation over the decision by the US Supreme Court to uphold the ban on "partial birth" abortions. Ladies and gentlemen, I give you the pompous, hysterical pontificators at the New York Times :
It severely eroded the constitutional respect and protection accorded to women and the personal decisions they make about pregnancy and childbirth. The justices went so far as to eviscerate the crucial requirement, which dates to the 1973 ruling in Roe v. Wade, that all abortion regulations must have an exception to protect a woman’s health.
As far as we know, Mr. Kennedy and his four colleagues responsible for this atrocious result are not doctors. Yet these five male justices felt free to override the weight of medical evidence presented during the several trials that preceded the Supreme Court showdown. Instead, they ratified the politically based and dangerously dubious Congressional claim that criminalizing the intact dilation and extraction method of abortion in the second trimester of pregnancy — the so-called partial-birth method — would never pose a significant health risk to a woman. In fact, the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists has found the procedure to be medically necessary in certain cases.
As far as we know, there ain't nary a doctor on the New York Times editorial board, either. Which does not stop them one whit from coming down four-square for a barbarous procedure that is nothing but infanticide with a fancy title. So there you have it, prediction fulfilled - not hard to guess that one, was it? But the sheer, flamboyant, pompous idiocy of the fools who would scold others for not being doctors when they are not either is simply breathtaking. This is the "chickenhawk" meme taken to its illogical extreme. They have actually succeeded in making themselves look even more ridiculous than they already did. A truly monumental tour de force of hubris.
By maha, Friday, 20 April , 2007 @ 6:25 am
Since you care so much about what gynecologists and obstetricians think, you might want to read what the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists said about the SCOTUS ruling.
http://www.acog.org/from_home/publications/press_releases/nr04-18-07.cfm
“Despite the fact that the safety advantages of intact dilatation and evacuation (intact D&E) procedures are widely recognized—in medical texts, peer-reviewed studies, clinical practice, and in mainstream, medical care in the United States—the US Supreme Court today upheld the Partial-Birth Abortion Ban Act of 2003.
“According to the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists’ (ACOG) amicus brief opposing the Ban, the Act will chill doctors from providing a wide range of procedures used to perform induced abortions or to treat cases of miscarriage and will gravely endanger the health of women in this country.”
Etc. There’s more at the link.