Stenberg v. Carhart

Stenberg v. Carhart was a case heard by the Supreme Court of the United States dealing with Partial-birth abortion, specifically a Nebraska law which made performing a specific type of abortion illegal, punishable by revoking of the physician's license. Nebraska, like many states, had banned this procedure on the basis of public morality. The Court struck down the law mainly due to the fact that it did not make an exception for the woman's health, and also due to the ambiguity of the statute.

Dissent

Justice Anthony Kennedy dissented. Kennedy claimed this type of law was allowed by their ruling in Planned Parenthood v. Casey, which allowed laws to preserve prenatal life to a certain extent. He called Sandra Day O'Connor's behavior a "betrayal." This was a far cry from Justice Clarence Thomas' dissent, which basically stated that abortion was not a right at all, and even attacked the other justices. Chief Justice William Rehnquist, along with Antonin Scalia, and Thomas have consistently said that they do not believe abortion is a protected right, and that "privacy" is not explicitly mentioned in the Constitution (which it isn't). Scalia also pointed out in his dissenting opinion that even if abortion was a woman's right, the law in question was not designed to strike at the right itself. He reminded the others that many groups, including even the American Medical Association, had concluded that partial-birth abortion was very different from other forms of abortion, and was often considered infanticide. Scalia also noted that the gruesome nature of some partial-birth abortions has caused personal trauma in the doctors performing them. In a short separate opinion, Chief Justice Rehnquist stated that he did not join Casey but felt that Justice Kennedy had applied its precedent correctly, and thus joined his opinion.

Related Topics:
Anthony Kennedy - Planned Parenthood v. Casey - Sandra Day O'Connor - Clarence Thomas - William Rehnquist - Antonin Scalia - American Medical Association - Infanticide

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By a 5-4 majority, the Nebraska law was struck down, as were all other state laws banning partial-birth abortion. As of 2003, however, the federal government has placed a ban on partial-birth abortion. This law is probably headed for a similar fate, as it did not include an exception for the health of the mother, as Justice O'Connor said it must. In the wake of Justice O'Connor's retirement, however, the future of the case's established precedent is now questioned. Several state judges have already struck down the law, however, and it is currently in litigation.

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