While the Supreme Court of the United States upheld the Partial-Birth Abortion Ban Act of 2003 in Gonzales v. Carhart, abortion supporters in Congress have acted quickly to counteract the decision.  Senator Barbara Boxer and Representative Jerrold Nadler have introduced a bill, called the Freedom of Choice Act, that would dramatically expand federal protection of abortion rights beyond what is required by Roe v. Wade or Planned Parenthood v. Casey.  The bill would invalidate many federal, state and local abortion laws, including the Partial-Birth Abortion Ban Act. 

The Freedom of Choice Act would create an absolute right to abortion that would override any federal, state or local law that simply "interfered with" that right, no matter how compelling the justification for the law.  For instance, the Freedom of Choice Act would likely invalidate the Partial-Birth Abortion Ban Act even though the statute is constitutional.  The findings section of the Freedom of Choice Act states that Congress’s decision in the partial-birth abortion case "permits the government to interfere with the woman’s right to choose to terminate pregnancy . . . ."  Since the Freedom of Choice Act would invalidate any federal, state or local law that interferes "with a woman’s right to choose . . . to terminate a pregnancy prior to viability," federal and state partial-birth abortion bans would likely be invalidated. 

This attempt to not only reverse the Supreme Court decision but to expand the right to abortion must be dealt with aggressively.  Our Government Affairs staff is already working on congressional efforts to defeat this bill.  I have assembled a legal team that is already reviewing possible legal challenges if this bill were to actually be passed.  While I am not surprised by this move, I am very concerned.  We must work aggressively to protect the most vulnerable among us.  We have prepared a special video presentation on the Freedom of Choice Act.  Click here if you’d like to view it.