Many women suffer severe injuries at abortion facilities, but few take the abortion business to court because they don't want to publicize their abortion. Now, a U.S. Supreme Court action could provide some privacy for those harmed.
The Supreme Court has let stand a lower court ruling allowing a woman using the pseudonym, Jane Roe II, to sue an abortion facility in Florida. Michael Hirsh, the attorney representing Jane Roe II, described what happened to the woman: “They punctured her uterus, lacerated her colon and she was taken to the emergency room, finally, where the dead child was actually removed from the uterus.”
Ironically, Hirsh argued his case based on a law designed to guarantee women the right to access an abortion clinic and billed as a law against free speech rights of pro-life advocates. “When they held my client down inside that abortion clinic and would not let her leave, they violated this federal statute,” Hirsh said. Wendy Wright, spokeswoman for Concerned Women for America, said the lawsuit reveals an abortion double standard.
“It's ludicrous to even think that an abortion clinic is arguing a woman can't sue anonymously, because clearly the reason that they have abortion-on-demand is because of (the original abortion-legalizing decision) Roe v. Wade, where Norma McCorvey went to court anonymously,” Wright said.
Jean Sapp, of Counselors Corps, said the court, in its decision, upheld that right. “By being able to proceed anonymously, hopefully more women will be encouraged to come forward with their stories of abuse in these terrible places,” Sapp said.
The case now resumes in federal district court in Jacksonville, Fla.
In Roe v. Wade, the “right to an abortion” was based on a so-called constitutional “right to privacy.” To find against Hirsh in this case, the Court would have had to rule the right to privacy no longer existed – which would have overturned Roe v. Wade.
Hirsh said he would have loved losing the decision.
(This article courtesy of Steven Ertelt and the Pro-Life Infonet email newsletter. For more information or to subscribe go to www.prolifeinfo.org or email infonet@prolifeinfo.org.)
