News Archive

On Saturday, April 21, The New York Times published a news analysis article on the abortion issue and the recent United States Supreme Court decision upholding the ban on intact dilation and extraction procedures or “partial birth abortions.” Law Professor David Orentlicher, M.D., Co-director of the Hall Center for Law and Health and an expert on bioethics, was quoted in the article entitled “Anger and Alternatives on Abortion” (by Gina Kolata). Orentlicher points out that there is “a precedent for legislatures to pass laws affecting medical decision making…States enacted laws making it difficult for parents to have their mentally retarded children sterilized. They enacted laws restricting electroconvulsive therapy for psychiatric patients. But, Dr. Orentlicher said, the court’s ruling troubles him because it is different in spirit. This time, the law is very specific about the use of one particular procedure.”