Mere O neighbor and friend Richard Radcliffe has done the dirty work of extracting the choice quotations from the Supreme Court's recent opinion upholding the Partial Birth Abortion ban, while also providing helpful commentary. Radcliffe maintains the only law blog I read regularly, and is entering a Ph.D. program in theology in the fall.
His conclusion:
To abortion opponents, the decision is good news because, taking an incremental approach, it expands Casey by underscoring government's legitimate interests in preserving fetal life and authorizing restrictions of abortion pursuant to a less stringent "rational basis" rubric.
To abortion proponents, Justice's Ginsburg's heated rhetoric tells the story: "[T]he notion that the Partial-Birth Abortion Ban Act furthers any legitimate governmental interest is, quite simply, irrational. The Court's defense of the statute provides no saving explanation. In candor, 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...." (p. 24.)