Should the ban on partial birth abortion be sent to the states?

Question

Many believe that Roe overstepped the boundaries of the juducial system. if you believe that the right to an abortion should be left up to the individual states, should the ban on certain procedures ALSO be left up to the states? And please, refrain from personal attacks and just answer the question.

Answer 1

I think early term abortions should be legal federally.
I think partial birth abortions and other forms of abortion(past 12 weeks) can be left up to the states.

Answer 2

That would be fine by me. The people can act either through the state or the federal legislature.

I guess the legal analysis is that if some right is not constitutionally protected, then the states or the federal government can legislate the issue either way.

Now that I think about it, there IS an argument that the Congress does not have the power to pass this law!

Anyone with even a passing familiarity with this site will recognize the continuing disputes over the Commerce Clause (Somewhere in Art. I of the Constitution) and its possible overuse by Congress in passing legislation. I seem to recall that the Supreme Court struck down the federal laws regarding guns near schools and violence against women (?!), saying the "nexus" between the activities regulated and interstate commerce were not great enough. (This is just from memory.)

So obviously the argument is available that the Congress has no power to pass a ban. I wonder if this challenge was made already in the case, though. I have to read it yet.

I don't want to get into how likely that argument is to succeed, or whether or not it should succeed. But it came to mind.

No one really knows the reach of the Commerce Clause, or rather what the present Court thinks it is. Medical marijuana was another case - the Court said Congress (or the FDA, I forget) COULD regulate.

And we have to be careful what we wish for. I LIKE it that the FDA keeps rat droppings and bug parts in my food to a minimum. :)

PS Here's the case:

http://www.supremecourtus.gov/opinions/06pdf/05-380.pdf

Skimming it, it appears the Commerce Clause argument didn't come up. Maybe I'm wrong. Or maybe they thought it was unnecessary, or counterproductive, to bring up.

Did I bore you to death, again? :)

Answer 3

Of course not! The Supreme Court ruled the Ban was valid unlike the lower courts. If States tried to ban Abortion a Federal Court would rule against the State because NARAL Planned Parenthood and the ACLU would file suit so fast that it would be in the docket before the ink dried. I praise the court for it's actions yesterday. There are States which would keep Abortion legal, many more that would ban it, thus the Apellate process would be a mess because the 9th circuit would validate Abortion while other circuits would opt out.
Therefore the Supreme Court would uphold Roe for now.
The 4 dissenters on the court opposed to the ruling, one is rather long in the tooth and won't be around much longer, so one originalist appointed to the court could bring down Roe.
It is time to end Abortion.

Answer 4

I am Pro-Choice; however, I support partial birth abortions only when the mother's health is at risk or the child will have developmental difficulties/severe handicaps.

Allowing this to become a State Issue means that poor women may not have access which is discriminatory and wrong. But with over 1/2 the states already weighing in with partial birth restrictions, the tide has already changed.

Answer 5

I think the whole debate needs to be thrown back to the states from RU-486 to week 35 day 6 abortion. Roe was a judicial overreach and mauling of the 10th Amendment solely for the purpose of imposing legislation from the bench. Discounting my personal preferences, if Utah wants none of it and Nevada wants it all, then so be it. We will never agree as a nation on the moral arguments of abortion and though the Founders probably never envisioned a debate like this, this was the purpose of the 10th Amendment.

Answer 6

Yes, according to the tenth amendment, if it is not prohibited by the Constitution then it is left up to the individual states and the people. Abortion is not prohibited by the Constitution, therefore abortion and procedures for it should be left up to each individual state and not the federal government. We need to maintain state sovereignty.

Answer 7

Over thirty states have laws banning partial birth abortion.

Answer 8

Abortion should have never been an issue at the national level. It should have never left the states.

Answer 9

Actually I think some states do have such laws.I know Wisconsin does anyway.

Answer 10

Late-term murders should be illegal unless the mother's health is seriously at risk.