Statement of Professor Daniel C. Maguire on Abortion Ban of Supreme Court
"The
five Catholic judges on the Supreme court, Messrs. Roberts, Alito, Scalia, Kennedy,
and Thomas, in a binge of judicial activism, assaulted the autonomy of women
in today's decision in the case of Gonzales v. Planned Parenthood and Gonzales
v. Carhart. At the same time, they sent the unmistakable signal that this right
wing Catholic majority of judges (there are left wing and moderate Catholics
who support a woman's right to choice) will proceed apace with the well advanced
scuttling of Roe v. Wade."
The same Supreme Court that disgraced itself by impeding a vote count and allowing
George W. Bush to begin his warring presidency, now, in the name of life, impedes
and blocks the exercise of women's rights, rights which are supported by authorities
in all the world religions. (Cf: Sacred Rights: the Case for Contraception and
Abortion in World Religions, Edited by Daniel C. Maguire, Oxford University
Press, 2003) In so doing, these judges are trampling on the religiously grounded
civil rights of women.
The Court today also entered into the practice of medicine,
overruling any judgment that might be made by a woman with her attendant physician
in circumstances that can and do occur according to the American College of
Obstetricians and Gynecologists."
As Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg said in her dissent, "…the Court deprives
women of the right to make an autonomous choice, even at the expense of their
safety." Doing this in the name of respect for "life" is raw
hypocrisy."