Newswire

Roy Moore files brief in Supreme Court abortion case

MONTGOMERY, Ala. -- Former Alabama Chief Justice Roy Moore and the Foundation for Moral Law filed a brief with the U.S. Supreme Court on Monday, arguing that there is no constitutional right to an abortion.

Moore and the foundation made the argument in a "friend of the court" brief filed in connection with a challenge to a 2003 federal law banning a type of abortion that critics call "partial birth" abortions.

Moore, who helped start the foundation, argued that the equal protection clause of the 14th Amendment gives Congress the authority to ban a type of abortion. But Moore went further, arguing that the U.S. Supreme Court was wrong in 1973 when it ruled women have a right to abortions. He argued that no constitutional right exists.

"The courts have a duty to protect life - not take it," Moore said Monday.

The filing of the brief comes two weeks before Moore faces Gov. Bob Riley in the Republican primary for governor on June 6.

The U.S. Supreme Court justices will hear arguments in the abortion case this fall, as voters are preparing for important state and congressional elections.

Congress passed the law in 2003 to prohibit the type of abortion, generally carried out in the second or third trimester, in which a fetus is partially removed from the womb and its skull punctured or crushed. The law was never put into effect because judges in California, Nebraska and New York ruled against it.

SOURCE: http://www.ledger-enquirer.com/