The U.S. Supreme Court Rules Against Women’s Health
Of Counsel, Summer 2007
Message from our President Nancy Northup
Though most court-watchers were expecting the decision in Gonzales v. Carhart to come down late in the Supreme Court’s term, we were prepared for it when it was announced on April 18th. In fact, we were getting ready for it that very morning, reviewing the logistics of our communications strategy so that we could react immediately and effectively to whatever the Supreme Court decided, whenever it decided it.
When the e-mail—then the calls and more e-mails—came through, at first all I knew was that it was a 5-4 decision. When I learned that the decision permitted the further erosion of the right guaranteed in Roe, and indicated a willingness to welcome further assaults, my heart sank. Until that point, I had been an optimist. Based on established law, the overwhelming medical opinion on our side, and the extensive and careful fact-finding of the district court, I believed that we would win. “Six lower courts know how to read precedent and have paid attention to the record,” I thought, “Why, then, can’t the Supreme Court?” The answer, of course, is the change in the Court’s composition. With Justice O’Connor’s moderate vote replaced by that of Justice Alito, the future of the right to abortion seems ever more dim.If the decision’s paternalism—the shocking commentary on how women might not know what’s best for them, the support for the medically unsubstantiated ‘post-abortion syndrome’—stunned me, Justice Ginsburg’s hard-hitting dissent energized me. For the rest of the day, through coalition calls, press conferences and media appearances, I thought of her voice, and of how her words vindicated our position.I am so proud of the great work we do. By the middle of the day, we were already strategizing on how to handle the possible fall-out. Disappointed though we were with the Court’s decision, an e-mail from a friend and Supreme Court advocate underscored the importance of our refusal to give up: “Just remember,” he wrote, “we keep running into walls because we know that every once in a while, we break through.” It is in that spirit that I eventually went home, and it was that spirit that I, and every one of the Center’s brilliant staff, brought back to work the next morning.
