WHO IS LOOKING OUT FOR WOMEN'S HEALTH?
State Sen. Connie Williams talks about the latest U.S. Supreme Court decision on abortions

The news that the United State Supreme Court had upheld a federal ban on so-called "partial-birth" abortion was distressing, but not unexpected given the bias of the current federal administration and its court.

Realistically, the ban will have little to no impact on Pennsylvania law that already places strict limitations on post 24-week abortions. The current law makes it highly unlikely that anyone can get an abortion if the gestational age of the unborn child is 24 or more weeks. Tucked into Title 18 (Crimes and Offenses), Section 3211 (Abortion on unborn child of 24 or more weeks) prohibits such abortions unless it is necessary to either save the life of the mother, or to protect her ability to have children in the future.

What this latest action will accomplish is to weaken the court's protection of reproductive rights and to place a new limitation on safeguards for women's health.

There are very few women who seek an abortion at 24 weeks or later for any reason other than severe health problems of the unborn child – the unborn child has a deformity that will not permit it to survive outside of the womb – or to safeguard her own health. When this happens, it is a tragedy to the family, which leaves the family grappling with a devastating loss. In many such cases an abortion is necessary to preserve a woman's ability to become pregnant in the future.

This action by the Supreme Court shows a very serious indifference to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness for American women. To quote Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg in her written dissent on the ruling: "…the Act, and the Court's defense of it, cannot be understood as anything other than an effort to chip away at a right declared again and again by this Court…"

Women's health should not become a casualty in the ongoing political tug-of-war over who controls reproductive rights.