Word: stenberg
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Dates: during 2000-2009
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...issue of abortion, Bush has promised that he will work to reverse the Supreme Court's decision to overturn a partial-birth abortion law passed by the Nebraska legislature. The law, which Nebraska Attorney General Don Stenberg '74 sought to defend, attempted to ban the horrific procedure in which the baby's brain is extracted from its skull after the baby's limbs are torn from its body. Bush has promised that, if elected, he will appoint justices who would uphold a state's ability to pass such...
...doctor punctures its skull and extracts its contents. In a dilation and evacuation (D&E) abortion, the woman's cervix is also dilated, but the fetus is dismembered before being removed in pieces through the vagina. Under questioning from Justice Sandra Day O'Connor, Nebraska Attorney General Don Stenberg conceded that the state could not constitutionally prohibit D&E abortions...
...argument, Stenberg maintained that the statute applies only to the D&X procedure. However, Dr. Leroy Carhart argues--and a lower court agreed--that the law as written could be interpreted as including the D&E procedure. And, according to Carhart, even in first-trimester procedures "fetal elements" sometimes enter the vagina before the fetus is dead, meaning that zealous prosecutors could use the law against doctors performing virtually any abortion. In fact, the Nebraska legislature passed up opportunities to more narrowly define the law to include only D&X, which abortion-rights have interpreted as an attempt to target...
...sense on a number of grounds, both legal and moral. The state appears to feel that it is taking a stand against infanticide by trying to ban a procedure that removes the fetus intact while implicitly supporting one that removes it in pieces. As Justice O'Connor told Mr. Stenberg, "Both [D&X and D&E] are rather gruesome procedures." Therefore, it seems that were the state to target one, it should logically target the other...
Last Tuesday the Supreme Court heard the case of Stenberg v. Carhart. Its ruling will determine the constitutionality of laws prohibiting so-called "partial-birth" abortions. While we are hopeful that the Nebraska law will be overturned, the debate is a reminder of the continued attacks upon a woman's right to choose...