Greens blast Supreme Court ruling, vow to defend choice & women's health

Green Party of the United States
www.gp.org

Friday, April 20, 2007

Contacts:
Scott McLarty, Media Coordinator, 202-518-5624, mclarty@greens.org 
Starlene Rankin, Media Coordinator, 916-995-3805, starlene@gp.org 
Linda Manning Myatt, Spokesperson, National Women's Caucus, 248-548-6175, lmmyatt@earthlink.net 

Greens condemn Supreme Court decision banning abortion procedure, pledge to fight for uncompromised women's reproductive rights

WASHINGTON, DC -- Green Party leaders strongly criticized the Supreme Court's ruling on Gonzalez v. Carhart, which curtailed the right of women to seek an abortion, and pledged to fight for full reproductive rights for women.

"Wednesday's Supreme Court's decision is an affront to women on several grounds. It interferes with the decisions that are made privately by a woman in consultation with her physician. It subordinates our lives to the lives of fetuses, relegating us to the status of vessels for childbirth. It outlaws a safe medical procedure, allowing no exception for the health of women. It overturns decades of women's legal rights to well established medical practices, including those rulings against the Partial Birth Abortion Ban Act of 2003, which criminalized the dilation and extraction method. By disregarding the safety of women, the decision violates the equal protection guarantee of the 14th Amendment," said Nan Garrett, Co-Chair of the National Women's Caucus of the Green Party and Co-Chair of the Georgia Green Party.

Greens criticized Democrats for caving in to antichoice lobbies and adopting 'partial birth' language. In his responses to a questionnaire from the US Catholic Conference, 2000 Democratic candidate Al Gore said he would allow certain legal restrictions on abortion rights: "Al Gore opposes late-term abortions and the procedure of partial-birth abortions." Greens expressed alarm at Sen. Hillary Clinton's (D-NY) statement in 2005 that pro-choice Democrats must seek "common ground" with political activists who seek to outlaw reproductive choice.

The Green Party's national platform embraces full reproductive rights, including unrestricted abortion rights and access, family planning assistance, removal of restrictions on foreign aid to nations that provide abortion, protection from domestic abuse and other kinds of violence and coercion based on gender and sexuality, equal rights in the workplace and equal pay, and a strengthened social safety net -- especially for single mothers, who comprise the largest percentage of Americans living in poverty. The Green Party includes feminism among its key values.

"The Green Party and Green candidates will continue to support full reproductive rights for women, especially the legal right for women to make decisions about abortion and related medical procedures with their doctors without meddling by politicians. We will work to repeal the Partial Birth Abortion Ban Act, we will fight to keep Roe v. Wade from being overturned, and we will uphold women's privacy and safety in all medical matters as central to equality and freedom throughout the US and the rest of the world," said Sylvia Inwood, Co-Chair of the National Women's Caucus and Chair of the Green Party of Michigan.

MORE INFORMATION

Green Party of the United States
http://www.gp.org 
1711 18th Street NW
Washington, DC 20009.
202-319-7191, 866-41GREEN
Fax 202-319-7193
Green Party News Center http://www.gp.org/newscenter.shtml

National Women's Caucus of the Green Party
http://greens.org/gp-uswomen/ 

Green Party platform: planks on women's rights, reproductive rights
http://www.gp.org/platform/2004/socjustice.html#998980 
http://www.gp.org/platform/2004/socjustice.html#1012830