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Supreme Court Supports Abortion Rights by Slim Margin
Aired January 22, 2003 - 14:05 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
KYRA PHILLIPS, CNN ANCHOR: It's certainly believed that the current Supreme Court supports abortion rights by the slimmest of margins, 5-4, and at least one justice is generally expected to retire by the end of the term.
CNN's Bob Franken joins us from the shifting sands of the highest court in the land.
BOB FRANKEN, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, we don't know how much the sands will shift, and also the abortion opponents who believe that this could be the year are regarded in most circles as grossly optimistic.
The Senate would have to confirm any justice, and there's a consensus that the Senate would not confirm one who said that he would overturn Roe v. Wade. But what abortion opponents have been doing is successfully chipping away at the original Roe v. Wade decision.
Probably the key rulings in that case came in 1989 and then in 1992, when the court ruled by a 5-4 margin that the states did have the right to regulate and limit access to an abortion.
But the justices have continued to sustain the legal right, according to the Constitution, according to Roe v. Wade, that there should be a woman's right to have an abortion under limited circumstances. And that tracks, by the whey way, what the polls are saying.
Now, as for the demonstrators, they haven't really made their way up here. If you look over now, you see a few people who probably just skipped the mall. They're just here getting ready. Most are from the anti-abortion forces.
Of course, they are going to be the people who support the right to an abortion who are going to be here also. That's going to be going into the evening, as Kathleen pointed out. But what's going on inside the court, the issue that really is probably the only abortion related issue before the court this year has to do with the use of racketeering laws to inhibit the activities of those who oppose abortion. It's more of a First Amendment issue and a Fifth Amendment issue than it is an abortion rights case.
Meanwhile, arguments are going to be coming, and in Congress, there are going to be other arguments. We heard the president talk about late term pregnancies, what anti-abortion people call partial birth abortions, but the court has already ruled one time that the restrictions against that are not necessarily consistent with Roe v. Wade. So this one has a long time to go before it's resolved, if it ever is. It's been 30 years now, Kyra.
PHILLIPS: Our Bob Franken, thank you.
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com
Aired January 22, 2003 - 14:05 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
KYRA PHILLIPS, CNN ANCHOR: It's certainly believed that the current Supreme Court supports abortion rights by the slimmest of margins, 5-4, and at least one justice is generally expected to retire by the end of the term.
CNN's Bob Franken joins us from the shifting sands of the highest court in the land.
BOB FRANKEN, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, we don't know how much the sands will shift, and also the abortion opponents who believe that this could be the year are regarded in most circles as grossly optimistic.
The Senate would have to confirm any justice, and there's a consensus that the Senate would not confirm one who said that he would overturn Roe v. Wade. But what abortion opponents have been doing is successfully chipping away at the original Roe v. Wade decision.
Probably the key rulings in that case came in 1989 and then in 1992, when the court ruled by a 5-4 margin that the states did have the right to regulate and limit access to an abortion.
But the justices have continued to sustain the legal right, according to the Constitution, according to Roe v. Wade, that there should be a woman's right to have an abortion under limited circumstances. And that tracks, by the whey way, what the polls are saying.
Now, as for the demonstrators, they haven't really made their way up here. If you look over now, you see a few people who probably just skipped the mall. They're just here getting ready. Most are from the anti-abortion forces.
Of course, they are going to be the people who support the right to an abortion who are going to be here also. That's going to be going into the evening, as Kathleen pointed out. But what's going on inside the court, the issue that really is probably the only abortion related issue before the court this year has to do with the use of racketeering laws to inhibit the activities of those who oppose abortion. It's more of a First Amendment issue and a Fifth Amendment issue than it is an abortion rights case.
Meanwhile, arguments are going to be coming, and in Congress, there are going to be other arguments. We heard the president talk about late term pregnancies, what anti-abortion people call partial birth abortions, but the court has already ruled one time that the restrictions against that are not necessarily consistent with Roe v. Wade. So this one has a long time to go before it's resolved, if it ever is. It's been 30 years now, Kyra.
PHILLIPS: Our Bob Franken, thank you.
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com
