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.

History

A physician named Leroy Carhart who specialized in late-term reproductive health, brought suit against Don Stenberg, the attorney general of Nebraska, seeking declaratory judgment that a state law banning certain forms of abortion was unconstitutional, based on the undue burden test established in Planned Parenthood v. Casey Both a federal district court and the U.S. Court of Appeals ruled in favor of Carhart before the case was appealed to the Supreme Court.

Related Topics:
Leroy Carhart - Planned Parenthood v. Casey

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

The Nebraska law prohibited any form of abortion that "partially evacuates fetal material through the cervix into the birth canal before curettage" Most of the abortions performed consisted of a vacuum tube inserted into the uterus, others consisted of what was known as "D & E" (Dilation and Evacuation), which is usually used during the second trimester because of the increased amount of fetal material. D & E dilated the cervix and removed some fetal material with non-vacuum instruments, and, in some cases, used curettage inside the uterus so that fetal material could be evacuated. Dr. Carhart wanted to use a modified version of this called "D & X" (Dilation and Extraction), which, rather than commencing curettage inside the uterus, extracted the fetus first and then began the process of disassemblage. Carhart stated that he wanted to perform this procedure because he believed it would be safer and would involve fewer risks for the women. It would not leave potentially harmful fetal tissue remainders in the uterus, and it minimized the number of instruments physicians needed to use.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Experts in fetal development provide markedly different assessments of the kind and degree of pain (if any) experienced by the fetus. Although in the second and third trimesters the nervous system is largely in place, the level of consciousness or awareness of the fetus is a matter of conjecture, and experiments aimed at measuring fetal pain have yielded results that are somewhat open to interpretation, given that measurable reactions of the fetus to stimuli may not correspond directly to an adult experience of pain. Many medical authorities affirm that at the stage of pregnancy when this procedure is performed, the fetus has not reached what the medical community has defined as viability, the stage at which a developing fetus can be expected to live if removed from the uterus (usually at five months gestation, with medical assistance, although the viability threshold is retreating with medical advances).

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

The medical and scientific questions surrounding partial-birth abortion are impacted in the public arena by political and special interest considerations, resulting in a certain degree of media "hype" surrounding this case. Proponents of abortion rights on the one hand and the right-to-life on the other both decry what they describe as "myths" regarding this procedure that have passed into mainstream American debate on the issue.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~