A ruling handed down by the U.S. Supreme Court yesterday upheld a portion of an Indiana law requiring that fetal remains be disposed of properly, but declined to take up the challenge about blocking abortions on the basis of sex, race or disability – for now.
The Hill is reporting on the 7-2 ruling which will require the remains of babies that have been aborted or miscarried to be either buried or cremated. The only dissenters in the ruling were Justices Ruth Bader Ginsburg and Sonya Sotomayor. The decision reverses a ruling from the 7th Circuit Court of Appeals that found the law unconstitutional.
Justice Clarence Thomas wrote in a lengthy opinion that he “would have thought it could go without saying that nothing in the Constitution or any decision of this court prevents a state from requiring abortion facilities to provide for the respectful treatment of human remains.”
The justices chose not to rule on the issue of whether or not to ban abortions on the basis of sex, gender or disability; however, this deferment was only due to the fact that the lower courts have not had enough time to weigh in on that provision.
Justice Thomas said that the court will eventually have to take up these laws in the future and expressed his concern about the possibility of abortion being used for “eugenics.”
“Given the potential for abortion to soon become a tool of eugenic manipulation, the court will soon need to confront the constitutionality of laws like Indiana’s,” Thomas wrote. “But because further percolation may assist our review of this issue of first impression, I join the court in declining to take up the issue now.”
Pro-abortion activists at NARAL were none too pleased with the ruling.
“SCOTUS has upheld a restriction on abortion in Indiana signed by none other than Mike Pence,” the organization tweeted. “This law does absolutely NOTHING to improve healthcare. It’s meant to shame women and cut off access by driving up the costs of an abortion procedure.”
Prominent pro-life organizations, such as Life Legal Defense Foundation (LLDF), who filed a brief in the case on behalf of a former abortionist, praised the ruling in favor of the respectful handling of human remains.
“Planned Parenthood successfully sued to stop implementation of the law shortly after it was passed, alleging due process and equal protection violations,” LLDF writes. “PP was afraid that the requirement to treat aborted babies with dignity meant courts will find that ‘human life begins at conception and that a fetus is a human being.’ Of course, this is precisely why this law is so important—it sends a clear message that preborn children are deserving of the same humane treatment as other persons.”
Human beings are not trash and the time has come for abortion clinics to respect the bodies of the infants who perish on their premises.
“The Kermit Gosnell case shed light on the horrific way unborn babies targeted for abortion are treated,” the LLDF reminds. “Gosnell cut off the feet of babies he aborted and stored them in jars. He stuffed whole bodies of aborted babies—some well into the third trimester—in juice containers and milk jugs. He stored babies and body parts in his freezer . . . . These barbaric practices will now be prohibited in Indiana and other states with similar laws.”
This is just the latest round in the abortion wars and a reminder of more crucial battles yet to come that can only be won through prayer and peaceful action!
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