More Partial Birth

Stop the ACLU has an excellent post on Partial Birth Abortion and the Constitution:

The partial birth abortion ban ruling is a watershed moment in the abortion debate. It isn’t because it “restricts a right for a woman to choose” or that “it is the beginning of the end of abortion”, it’s that it is a vindication for a common-sense understanding of the Constitution.

The foundational rights of this nation at the time of its creation were freedom of speech, freedom of religion, and due process. These ideas were supreme and everything else was built from there. Many laws were struck down simply because they conflicted, even tangently, with those rights. With Roe v Wade, something quietly but dramatic occurred.

The foundational right of the nation changed to be a “right to abortion”. Even if one were to argue that abortion was a constitutional right encapsulated in a right to privacy that simply does not translate into a “right of abortion” that overrides all others.

Want to express your free speech in protest? You can’t do it if it is too close to an abortion clinic because it might interfere with someone else’s “right of abortion”. Want to express your free association in forming a crisis pregnancy center to provide alternatives to abortion? You can’t do it without significant government oversight, regulation and outright suspicion because it might interfere with someone else’s “right of abortion”. Want to be a pharmacist and still hold true to your religion? You can’t due it because it might interfere with someone else’s “right of abortion”.

Read the whole thing.