Supreme Court ruling must be reversed

Those states were not alone: Congress has twice passed legislation to prohibit the practice, and the vast majority of Americans have expressed their opposition to it in surveys.

"Frightening, a victory for barbarism, outrageous and an affront" are some of the words and phrases chosen by pro-life leaders in reaction to the ruling. Their emotional choices are warranted. Although the 5-4 ruling was as close as it can be, it is stupefying that any judge at all could stomach a procedure as barbaric as partial-birth abortion.

This is the method by which an unborn child is partly removed, feet first, from the womb. Another few inches, and he or she would be born. But the doctor stops the process and stabs scissors into the child's skull, spreads the wound open and inserts a suction device to remove the brain. With the head collapsed and the baby dead, the child is then completely delivered.

In 1973, when the Supreme Court legalized abortion for any reason at any stage of gestation, pro-lifers predicted that the inevitable outcome would be infanticide. Many criticized that as alarmist, but that step is literally only inches away.

As we celebrate the Declaration of Independence and its self-evident truth about the right to life, five members of the Court decided that some of us do not have that fundamental right. At a time when people are re-examining capital punishment because innocent people might be executed, unborn children, all of whom are innocent, have been re-sentenced to the cruel and unusual punishment of abortion.

What are Catholics to do in a society that continues to tolerate more than a million abortions annually and that has legalized its most barbarous method? They must make pro-life choices in their own lives and families. They must pray for women who are considering abortion and offer them alternatives. They must support, personally and financially, pro-life efforts in education and lobbying. They must conscientiously weigh their votes this fall in light of all of the teachings of their Church.

When the Declaration of Independence was signed 224 years ago, there was another blot on our society: slavery. The decades of effort required to erase that stain -- including dismaying and outrageous Supreme Court rulings like the Dred Scott decision -- should inspire in us today a similar commitment of time, prayer and effort.

(07-06-00)