Abortion and the Death Penalty - Two Difficult Issues Confronting Texas and All of America

A federal appeals court on Thursday upheld Texas' tough abortion restrictions that have forced the closure of about 20 clinics around the state, ruling that the new rules don't jeopardize women's health. The New Orleans based 5th Circuit Court of Appeals overturned a lower court judge who said the rules violate the US Constitution and serve no medical purpose. After the lower court's ruling, the appeals court allowed the restrictions to go into effect while it considered the case. The rules require doctors who perform abortions must have privileges at a nearby hospital and places strict limits on doctors prescribing abortion-inducing pills. More regulations that are scheduled to begin later this year weren't a part of the case. In its opinion, the appeals court said the law "on its face does not impose an undue burden on the life and health of a woman." Planned Parenthood, which sued to block the restrictions, called the ruling "terrible" and said that "safe and legal abortion will continue to be virtually impossible for thousands of Texas women to access." Women will be forced to seek abortions later in their pregnancy, if they are able to get to a doctor at all." The Republican-controlled Legislature passed and Governor Rick Perry signed last summer some of the toughest restrictions in the US on when, where and how women may obtain an abortion. Debate of the law drew thousands of demonstrators on both sides of the issue to the Texas state Capitol and caused a 12-hour filibuster by state Senator Wendy Davis, a Fort Worth Democrat who succeeded in temporarily blocking passage. Though the restrictions later passed overwhelmingly, Davis catapulted to political stardom and is now running for governor. The office of Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott, a Republican who is also now running for governor, defended the law in court. He and Perry, who is not seeking re-election, cheered Thursday's ruling, saying the court's decision vindicates the careful effort by the Texas Legislature to craft a law to protect the health and safety of Texas women." In passing the rules, Texas lawmakers argued they were protecting the health of women. But abortion-rights supporters called the measures an attempt to effectively ban abortion through overregulation. The new rules, including a requirement that all procedures take place in a surgical facility, are set to begin in September, though they may also be challenged in court. The court rejected the argument that the burden caused by the new rules "falls on a large fraction of the cases." If the number of women who will have to travel farther increases because of the smaller number of doctors who will perform abortions, "the burden does not fall on the vast majority of Texas women seeking abortions," the appeals court found. The US Supreme Court will probably have the last word. The court's four liberal justices already have indicated they are inclined to hear an appeal. In November, the four dissented from the high court ruling upholding the 5th Circuit's decision to allow Texas to enforce the law while the lower court appeal was pending. The dissent, written by Justice Stephen Breyer and jouned by Justices Ruth Bader Ginsburg, Elena Kagan and Sonia Sotomayor, said that the four dissrnters would probably want to hear the case regardless of the 5th Circuit decision. Five votes constitute a majority on the nine-justice court, but it takes only four to grant full review of a lower court ruling. ~~~~~ Texas executed 16 people in 2013, one more person than in 2012. In 2013, 69% of the people Texas executed were people of color, eight African-Americans and three Hispanics. There were five white people executed by Texas in 2013. Since December 7, 1982, the state of Texas has executed 508 people. There have been 269 executions in Texas since Rick Perry took office in December 2000. New death sentences have declined from their high in the late 90s. In 1999, there were 48 people sentenced to death. On March 24, the U.S. Supreme Court agreed to hear arguments in a Texas death penalty case concerning the ineffectiveness of counsel. In his request for federal relief from his death sentence, Robert Jennings cited three instances in which his trial lawyers failed to adequately represent him. A US District Court granted him relief on two of those claims (including failure to present evidence of his mental problems), while denying the third (his own lawyers told the jury they agreed he was eligible for the death penalty). Texas appealed the District Court's grant of relief on the first two claims to the US Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit, which then held they could not consider Jennings' third claim of ineffective representation because his lawyers failed to file formal appeal papers on that claim. The case may be set for argument in the fall. Texas has become ground zero for capital punishment. Between 1976 (when the Supreme Court lifted its prohibition on the death penalty) and 1998 Texas executed 167 people. Next in rank was Virginia which executed 60 during the same period. pact of this procedure on the frequency. ~~~~~ Dear readers, the conflict between the strong desire of the Texas government to save unborn babies from being aborted and killed and its first place in US executions because of its death penalty law is astonishing. How can anyone who opposes abortion for whatever reason, whether to protect the unborn child or the mother's health and life, at the same time execute human beings for whatever reason, whether because of the viciousness of the crime or the color of their skin or ethnic background. Texas is at odds with itself. So is America. Some say in Texas it is a leftover from the days of lynchings. Others say it is a remnant of the frontier mindset. In the rest of America, these are sober, uncomfortable issues. If Rick Perry, or anyone else, is serious about running for President in 2016, they will have to address both issues. While white Americans - Protestant, Catholic and nonaffiliated - favor capital punishment at between 55% and 67%, Hispanic Catholics and Black Protestants do not, at between 27% and 37% favorability rating. But life in prison without parole is increasingly seen as an alternative, especially among young voters. As for abortion, Gallup has been asking the question since 1975 when 54% of Americans opposed abortion. In 2013, Gallup got the same answer : 54%. But in 2012, when abortion was an issue in the presidential campaign, only 17% said they could only vote for a candidate who agreed with their own views in abortion, while 45% said many other factors would also be considered before voting for a candidate who disagreed with their abortion views and 22% said it would be an important but not decisive factor. Most Americans polled say that the issue is complex and they disagree with the black-and-white views of both pro-life and pro-abortion activists. Perry and other Republican presidential hopefuls can hold the GOP base with a Texas-like view on abortion and the death penalty. But with Hispanic and Black voters, groups needed for either a Democrat or a Republican to win, the election will be decided by more mature discussions of these two difficult and heart-wrenching issues.