Greens Vow to Defend Women's Health

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

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
1700 Connecticut Avenue NW, Suite 404
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