Planned Parenthood says this isn't just a story about pitting abortion rights against the anti-abortion camp -- it's a story about the courts stepping into the doctors' office. This is the first time a federal court has banned a medical procedure.
It's a decision Planned Parenthood says comes between a woman and her doctor. The procedure that was banned in yesterday's ruling involves removing the fetus during the second trimester of pregnancy. It's performed in rare cases, where a woman's health is at risk or the fetus is not viable.
Here in San Diego, doctors at Planned Parenthood do not use this specific procedure. The new law does not ban all second trimester abortions. According to Planned Parenthood, it does something more dangerous.
Vince Hall, San Diego Planned Parenthood : The greatest consequence of what Congress and the Supreme court have done here is not born out of that one specific procedure being criminalized, the greatest consequence of what's happened here is that now, the Supreme Court of the United States has said that legislatures, federal and state legislatures have the right to put themselves between the doctor and the patient and criminalize conduct of the doctor -- even though he doctor is acting in the best interest of the health of the patient according to his or her medical training.
In downtown San Diego, 6,000 doctors from around the country are meeting for an internist conference. Ethics are among the topics of discussion. The past chair of the ethics committee for the American College of Physicians says the court's decision may force some doctors to make difficult choices.
Dr. William Golden, American College of Physicians : Society has set some boundaries of what's acceptable. But there may be episodes where a doctor and a patient have an episode where a certain intervention might be best for that patient, so this decision could make for some very difficult decision making between those two people.
Hall : This is a seismic shift in the Supreme Court’s thinking on the abortion issue and it has implications that go way beyond abortion, way beyond reproductive health, it's a dark day for women's health, there's no doubt about it.
Vince Hall worries the court's decision could lead to other legislation banning abortion, setting women back to the days of back alley abortions.
There was a dissenting voice worth noting in the court's 5 to 4 decision yesterday. The sole woman on the court, Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, called the decision “alarming” and said the majority's “hostility” to the right to abortion was “not concealed.”
The ruling does not make an exception for the health of the woman, but it does provide one to save a woman's life. Critics of this ban, however, note medical crisis aren't always so straightforward. Some fear doctors may now second-guess a medical decision in order to avoid possible prosecution.
