Washington, D.C. --- U.S. Rep. Frank Pallone, Jr. (D-NJ) made the following statement today regarding the U.S. Supreme Court's decision to uphold a nationwide ban on late-term abortions by ruling that the Partial Birth Abortion Ban Act does not violate a woman's right to an abortion:
"I am extremely disappointed with the Supreme Court's decision today to abandon 30 years of rulings that protected a woman's right to make private health care decisions with her doctor. Instead, they have put our judicial system on a disconcerting downward slope of limiting civil liberties.
"I agree with Justice Ginsberg's dissenting opinion that this 'alarming decision" is an effort to 'chip away' at a woman's right to abortion and 'blesses a prohibition with no exception safeguarding a woman's health'.
"The Partial Birth Abortion Ban, which was signed into law in 2003 by President Bush, had until today been struck down by every court that had examined it because it fails to provide an exception allowing the procedure to protect the life and health of the mother. It is no wonder, then, that The American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists, the American Nurses Association, and many other medical groups oppose the federal ban.
"By narrowly deciding to uphold this dangerously restrictive law, the Court has failed to protect women's health and has taken the process of making life or death decisions out of the hands of medical professionals.
