The Buzz

Abortion ban upheld

Supreme Court sides with pro-lifers to ban partial-birth procedure

Congressman Steve Chabot was in a House judiciary committee business meeting April 18 when, at exactly 10:15 a.m., he felt a tap on his shoulder. An aide handed him her Blackberry. When Chabot, an Ohio Republican, read the email message waiting on its screen, his face bloomed into a broad grin.

"This is great news! Just great!" he said.

A few minutes later, he interrupted the judiciary committee's regular proceedings to announce the news: The Supreme Court had just upheld the federal Partial Birth Abortion Act of 2003, a bill on which Chabot had been the primary House sponsor.

The room erupted into congratulations, said Chabot spokesman George Cecala: "There are a lot of pro-life folks on the judiciary committee who were just elated."

The cases before the high court, Gonzales v. Carhart and Gonzales v. Planned Parent hood, pitted abortionists against the federal government. At issue: the grisly late-term procedure, known as PBA, in which abortionists deliver babies feet-first up to the head, then stab them at the base of the skull and suction out the brains.

Writing for a 5-4 majority, Justice Anthony Kennedy said the federal ban does not pose an undue burden on a woman's right to abortion, and that abortion advocates had "not demonstrated that the act would be unconstitutional in a large fraction of relevant cases."

Legal experts said President Bush's appointment to the bench of John Roberts and Samuel Alito turned the tide in the case.

In 2000 Justice Sandra Day O'Connor joined Ruth Bader Ginsburg, John Paul Stevens, Stephen Breyer, and David Souter to strike down a Nebraska partial-birth abortion ban in Stenberg v. Carhart. In the Gonzales ruling, Justices Roberts, Clarence Thomas, Antonin Scalia, and Anthony Kennedy joined O'Connor's replacement, Samuel Alito, to uphold the federal ban.

The majority opinion detailed the difference between the two cases. Unlike the Nebraska ban, Kennedy noted, the federal act's narrow language would not affect the widely used "dilation and extraction" abortion procedure in which the baby is dismembered.

That didn't allay the fears of pro-abortion activists who worry that criminalizing one type of abortion will lead to the criminalization of others. Within hours of the ruling, Planned Parenthood staged a rally on the Supreme Court steps, while others decried the decision as "partisan," "frightening," and "dangerous."

"This ban provides no exceptions, even when needed to save the health and life of the mother," said Rep. Lynn Woolsey (D-Calif.) in a statement.

That's untrue: The 2003 ban does provide an exception to save the mother's life. Meanwhile, Mailee Smith, staff counsel for Americans United for Life, notes that the court did not consider a health exception necessary since alternative abortion procedures are available.

"The ruling indicated that federal courts must from now on give greater deference to state and federal regulation of abortion," Smith said.

The decision was a victory for President Bush, who, when he signed the ban into law in November 2003, vowed that "the executive branch will vigorously defend this law against any who try to overturn it in the courts."

Former Pennsylvania Senator Rick Santorum called the ensuing fight "a just cause" that finally put the face of the unborn child on the abortion debate.

"With partial-birth abortion, you can't miss the baby," said Santorum, who sponsored the 2003 partial-birth abortion ban in the Senate. "It's not a 'blob of tissue.' It's a little baby with arms and legs and feet and eyes and a nose. Because of the PBA debate, there is now a very cognitive process that people have to go through when analyzing what abortion means to them." - by Lynn Vincent

Virginia Tech

President Bush ordered flags flown at half mast across the country after a shooting at Virginia Tech left 33 college students and professors dead and wounded at least 20-the worst mass shooting in U.S. history. The massacre began on the morning of April 16 when Korean-American student Cho Seung-Hui killed two students in a coed dormitory two hours before he made his way to a building packed with students in class and opened fire on at least five classrooms.

Iraq

Despite weeks of increased security in Baghdad, the capital dissolved into "open battle," according to Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki. Five explosions by suicide bombers in busy areas of downtown Baghdad April 18 left more than 230 people dead and over 150 wounded. The following day a suicide bomber again breached heavy security, killing at least a dozen in a heavily Shiite district less than half a mile from President Jalal Talabani's home and just hours before a surprise visit to the besieged capital by U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates.

Gonzales

The Senate Judiciary Committee grilled Attorney General Alberto Gonzales April 19, probing for "gotcha" moments on the Justice Department's removal of eight U.S. attorneys last year. Sen. Herb Kohl (D-Wis.) pressed Gonzales on why he should not resign when so many Americans believe his continued service undermines the nonpartisan integrity of federal prosecutions. Other lawmakers challenged Gonzales to consider the credibility of the department over personal self-preservation. The embattled attorney general was visibly flustered at points but maintained that none of the firings were inappropriate. Democratic and Republican lawmakers continued to pressure President George W. Bush to dismiss his friend.

Politics

Nine Republican presidential candidates delivered short speeches in rapid succession at the Lincoln Day fundraiser in Des Moines, Iowa, April 14. Attendees reported that frontrunners Rudy Giuliani, John McCain, and Mitt Romney failed to stand out, leaving the race wide open for late-comer and rising star Fred Thompson. Former Virginia governor Jim Gilmore landed the choice jab of the night: "Rudy McRomney is not a conservative, and he knows he's not a conservative."

The race for the Democratic primary is tightening also: In an April 15 Gallup poll, frontrunner Hillary Clinton's favorable rating among Americans dipped to 45 percent. Candidates Barack Obama and John Edwards maintain ratings above 50 percent, and Al Gore continues to draw significant support despite not yet declaring a bid.

Capitol Hill

Nine-term Rep. John Doolittle (R-Calif.) resigned his seat on the House Appropriations Committee April 19 under scrutiny over his ties to convicted GOP lobbyist Jack Abramoff. FBI agents searched the lawmaker's home April 13 for records of Sierra Dominion Financial Solutions Inc., a company run by Doolittle's wife, Julie, who was on retainer for Abramoff from 2002 to 2004. Doolittle has denied wrongdoing.

April showers

Thousands of customers remained without power nearly a week after an Atlantic coast storm dumped 8 inches of rain on communities from New Jersey to Maine. It prompted severe tidal flooding, stranded travellers along the busy northeast corridor, and killed 18.