Justice Clarence Thomas joined his colleagues in declining Alabama’s attempt to enforce a law banning dismemberment abortions, but decried jurisprudence that he says “has spiraled out of control.”
On Friday, the Supreme Court denied Alabama’s petition for appeal after federal courts blocked a 2016 law that would have banned late-term abortions, in which the baby is dismembered in the womb. The 11th Circuit Court of Appeals had noted that the procedure was indeed dismemberment, but the three-judge panel said it was bound by Supreme Court precedent established in Planned Parenthood v. Casey (1992) that prohibits any law placing an “undue burden” on abortion access. Because of the popularity of the dismemberment practice known as dilation and evacuation, outlawing the procedure would hinder abortion access.
Justice Thomas published a concurring opinion agreeing that the case should be denied a hearing before the Supreme Court. While agreeing on procedural grounds, he took aim at the legal “aberration” and dubious reasoning that has cemented abortion as a constitutional right.
“The more developed the child, the more likely an abortion will involve dismembering it,” Thomas said. “The notion that anything in the Constitution prevents States from passing laws prohibiting the dismembering of a living child is implausible.”
Friday’s opinion was not the first time that Thomas has rebuked past and current justices over the issue of abortion. In May, the Court declined to hear a case involving an Indiana law that would have abolished discriminatory abortions performed because of the race, sex, or mental capacity of a baby. Thomas called such abortions a “tool of modern-day eugenics” in a concurring opinion. – READ MORE