Partial-birth victory

The 5-4 decision handed down April 18 in the combined cases Gonzales v. Carhart et al. and Gonzales v. Planned Parenthood Federation of America is more than just the biggest pro-life win at the high court since the tragic Roe v. Wade decision in 1973. And it did more than provide an opportunity for the courts' newcomers, Chief Justice John Roberts and Associate Justice Samuel Alito, to show where they stand along the pro-life spectrum.

Most importantly, the wording of the court's majority decision is bound to alter the nature of the legal dialogue on abortion legislation in the United States.

At the same time, there is reason to be less than ecstatic over this decision. It upholds a ban on one particular method of late-term abortion and does nothing directly to prevent other abortion methods. Even in the case of partial-birth abortion ("intact dilation and extraction"), stipulations regarding the doctor's intent to use that method may make it difficult or impossible to determine whether the act has actually been violated.

In other words, because alternative means of late-term abortion exist, the court might not have succeeded in saving the life of even one unborn child.

The value of the April 18 decision, however, is not so much in what it does, but in where it leads -- and it has brought pro-lifers cautious but reasonable hope for good things yet to come.

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We now know that we have four solid pro-life justices on the court, and we also know that a fifth -- the expected "swing vote," Anthony Kennedy, who, like the other four, is Catholic -- can be persuaded to support laws that protect unborn human life.

We know, too, that this ruling will encourage the introduction of more pro-life legislation at the state level and may also raise abortion as a key topic of debate for the 2008 presidential election derby.

Kennedy's majority opinion is remarkable -- and shocking -- for its detailed descriptions not only of partial-birth abortion but also other abortion methods in explicit but matter-of-fact terms.

What's more, in this majority opinion the language with which the court refers to the unborn child is more diversified and broad.

Along with the expected terms such as "the fetus" and "embryonic tissue" are references to the "life within the woman" and "the unborn child" -- language that implicitly affirms the humanity of the fetus.

The shrill dissenting opinion written by Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg trotted out tired-but-expected arguments to the effect that banning a late-term abortion procedure that involves crushing the head of a partially-delivered living child somehow is an affront to women's reproductive choices and jeopardizes women's health.

Ginsburg also unwittingly advances a pro-life message by noting that "non-intact D&E" abortions (that is, a late-term abortion where the unborn child is removed from the mother's womb in pieces) as well as abortions by lethal injection, Cesarean or medical induction arguably are just as "brutal" as the partial-birth procedure.

With this latter point we agree completely, and we look forward to broader legal protections and respect for unborn human life.

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