Gonzales v. Carhart Sharrett, 1

Gonzales v. Carhart: Right to Privacy Comment by Crystal G. DeLong: Court cases are always italicized. I?ll mention it here, be sure to correct throughout your paper.

Kim Sharrett

Liberty High School

Government 4A Comment by Crystal G. DeLong: You need course name as well

Abortion has always been a very hot topic in the past and today?s society; it has been an ongoing argument on what is right and what a woman?s rights protect. Gonzales v. Carhart is one of the most recent cases on abortion limits which upheld the Partial-Birth Abortion Ban Act of 2003. Abortion is legal, even though many people protest and do not believe in it, but since it is such a big deal there has to be limits …show more content…
It failed in the Supreme Court because the late term abortions were risking women's health. The argument was that it was violating a woman?s 5th Amendment, which deals with the people?s right to privacy (Gonzales v. Carhart , 2007).
In 2003, President Bush signed the Partial-Birth Abortion Ban Act, and it made a lot of pro-life advocates angry. The act stated "Any physician who, in or affecting interstate or foreign commerce, knowingly performs a partial-birth abortion and thereby kills a human fetus shall be fined under this title or imprisoned not more than 2 years, or both." (Chicago Kent College of Law, 2015). Partial abortions are also called late-term abortions, late term abortions states exactly what they are. Doctors that perform partial abortions have to remove an almost full grown fetus from the mother?s birth canal, the death of the fetus occurs when it is outside of the birth canal (Chicago Kent College of Law, 2015). Partial abortions can be very harmful to the mother and is a risk full procedure for the doctor also. This way of aborting a child is very brutal and is killing a baby that could sustain life. The first state to try and make partial abortions illegal if it was not …show more content…
(Chicago Kent College of Law, 2015). People argued that this act took away a woman?s right to an abortion, the court thought differently. The Court held that Congress, after finding a partial abortion is never medically necessary, could validly omit a health exception from the ban, even when "some part of the medical community" considers the procedure necessary (Chicago Kent College of Law,2015). The decision in the Supreme Court was 5-4, that no the Partial Abortion Ban Act was not unconstitutional. The majority opinion was by Anthony M. Kennedy. With the thought of the Partial-Birth Abortion Ban Act in play it made women feel like their civil liberties were being taken away from them. With the case going all the way to the Supreme Court it shows women that do not. ?It ended the controversial view on the 5th Amendment in regard to abortion (Chicago Kent College of Law, 2015). Abortion will always be a debated topic on what is morally right and what a person?s rights protect. People will always have an argument on abortion and not everyone will agree on terms and limits. There has been many abortion cases and surly there will be more to come. In this case it officially made partial abortions illegal