Page 6 - Viability Line News Today

Against them. so really by overruling roe and casey the court wont have to go down that road and a lot of those decisions are quite readily groundable in history, tradition and the courts traditional factors. >> thank you. justice thomas, justice breyer? alito? justice sotomayor? >> i just wanted to get your quick sense of how your intermediate positions would work if basically the viability line was discarded and undue burden became the standard overall, a standard according to you is an unclea...

Does not the woman have the same interest that she had before viability in being free of this pregnancy? that she no longer wants to continue? >> viability is a principled line, your honor, because in ordering the -- >> im trying to see whether it is a principle line. do you agree with me on that point? a woman still has the same interest in terminating her pregnancy after the viability line has been crossed? >> yes, yoush, but the court balanced the interest -- >> look at the interest on the ot...

Them in their entirety. you say that quote there are no half measures here. is that a correct understanding of your brief? >> your honor, it certainly the arguments that the state has presented is what were responding to there, which is that all of the states arguments including their alternatives, undue burden without viability would be a equivalent of overrule casey and roe. the viability line is the central holding of those cases. casey mentioned it no fewer than 19 times and the court in jun...

Chief justice. if this court would reject the viability line do you see any other intelligible principle that the court could choose? >> i think that it would be critically important even if this court were to reject the viability line to reinforce and reaffirm the fundamental and profound liberty interest here. >> that wasnt my question. i understand that point fully by the end of this argument. that is deeply clear to me, i understand your position. i am just asking a question whether you thin...

Consideration, but suppose we were considering that question now for the first time. im sure you know the arguments about the viability line as well as i do, probably better than i do. what would you say in defense of that line? what would you say to the argument that has been made many times by people who are pro choice and pro life that the line really doesnt make any sense? that it is as justice blackman himself described it, arbitrary. if a woman wants to be free of the burdens of pregnancy,...

>> thank you. >> i want to ask a followup question. the chief was asking about the viability line and if that was the right place, the right line to draw. lets take it out of the question and imagine theres a state constitution thats identical to the 14th amendment due process clause. and a state supreme court has to decide as a matter of state constitutional law what the scope of an abortion right is. and the second trimester ends at 27 weeks. and so that state supreme court says we think that ...

Follow roberts. he was very hard hitting in a lot of his questions about the basis for roe and also some substantial reductions on roe and casey. so i think the pro-choice folks will be disappointed in what they heard from kavanaugh today. >> harris: why is that? >> it seems like kavanaugh was really pressing again on the basis for roe and also whether they should keep the standard of the viability line. he was really delivering some hay makers to the pro-choice side as to some of their claims. ...

Thats a good thing. >> thats what were doing under undue burden but not on the viability line. >> neither one has worked well. the viability line discounts and disregards state interest and the undue burden standard has all the problem. >> how is your interest anything but a religious view. the issue of when life begins has been hotly debated by philosophers since the beginning of time. it is still debated in religions. so when you say this is the only right that takes away from the state the ab...

Squarely addressed viability, because the government had made the argument that viability -- >> no, no, i appreciate that casey addressed it. but thats different than saying it was at issue. it said it was the central principal of roe because it was pretty much all that was left after they were done dealing with the rest of us. the regulations in casey had no applicability or not depending on where viability was. if they didnt say anything about viability, its like what justice blackman said in ...

Constitutional contexts like the fourth and fifth amendment. the viability line makes sense because it focuses on the fetuss ability to survive separately. an appropriate legal line and doesnt delve into philosophical questions about when life begins. >> thank you, counsel. >> general. >> mr. chief justice and may it please the court. for a half century this court has correctly recognized the constitution protects a womans right to decide whether to end a pregnancy before viability. that guarant...