Gonzales v. Carhart

from Talk to Action

About the author: In addition to the less noteworthy accomplishment of being my friend, Carole Joffe is Professor of Sociology at UC-Davis and the author of Doctors of Conscience: The Struggle to Provide Abortion Before and After Roe V. Wade . With co-author Diane di Mauro, Professor Joffe recently published The Religious Right and the Reshaping of Sexual Policy: An Examination of Reproductive Rights and Sexuality Education [pdf link] in Sexuality Research & Social Policy, the journal of the National Sexuality Resource Center. She has granted permission to post the text of her essay in full. -- moiv

“Well, I used to do them—there is less blood loss, and in some situations, it just seems safer. I’m not sure what I will do now.”

The speaker is Dr. Jacob Clark (not his real name), a fit man in his 60s, an obstetrician/gynecologist who has spent his life serving poor women in an East Coast city. Over coffee, he is discussing over with me his deep frustration and confusion over the recent Supreme Court decision, Gonzales v Carhart, upholding an abortion ban.

The banned procedure—referred to by medical professionals as “Intact Dilation and Extraction”, and by antiabortionists as “Partial Birth Abortion”—is quite rare, less than 1% of all abortions performed in the United States. But Dr. Clark is one of those who performs this procedure, when the situation, in his judgment, calls for it.

Dr. Clark and I are attending a medical conference, shortly after the Court announced its decision. We’ve just heard the medical director of a large clinic address her colleagues from across the country, and succinctly state the dilemma that abortion providers now face: “We’ve got to keep our patients safe—and ourselves out of jail.”