Pro-choice advocates react with dismay

Local pro-choice advocates expressed disappointment about today's Supreme Court decision that upheld the ban on "partial-birth" abortions.

"It strikes me that the court has decided to eschew medical reality and legal process to make a political decision about women's lives and health," said Lisa Stone, executive director for the Northwest Women's Law Center in Seattle.

Blythe Chandler, deputy director of NARAL Pro-Choice Washington, agreed.

"It makes clear that Congress and other politicians think they can intervene in the private medical decisions of women," she said.

Stone said the banned procedure is performed only a few times in Washington state each year, but "if you were the woman who needed the procedure, even if there's only one of you, it would matter."

She also wanted to emphasize that "the sky has not fallen today. Women can still get abortions" and there are other medical procedures that can be used to end a late-stage pregnancy.

Anti-abortion activists praised the court's decision.

"Obviously, we applaud the Supreme Court's decision on the ban," said Dan Kennedy, chief executive for the Washington state affiliate of the National Right to Life Committee. "I think people in this nation are beginning to see through the lie that brutally taking the life of another being while devastating women in the process can even remotely be considered health care."

He called it "the first step in dismantling the charade of Roe v. Wade."

Sharon Pian Chan: 206-464-2958 or schan@seattletimes.com