Editing Roe v. Wade (section)

=== ''Stenberg v. Carhart'' ===
[[File:Rehnquist Court in 1994.jpg|thumb|The [[Rehnquist Court]] in 1994; the members pictured are the ones who decided ''Stenberg v. Carhart''. Justice Ginsburg replaced Justice White.]]
During the 1990s, [[Nebraska]] enacted a law banning partial-birth abortion. The law allowed another second-trimester abortion procedure known as [[dilation and evacuation]]. In 2000, the Supreme Court struck down the law by a 5–4 vote in ''[[Stenberg v. Carhart]]'', with Justice [[Stephen Breyer]] writing for the majority that sometimes partial-birth abortion "would be the safest procedure".<ref>[https://www.law.cornell.edu/supct/html/99-830.ZO.html ''Stenberg v. Carhart'' (99–830) 530 U.S. 914 (2000), Opinion of the Court], ''law.cornell.edu''</ref> Justice O'Connor wrote a concurrence stating Nebraska was actually banning both abortion methods.<ref>"and it proscribes not only the D&X procedure but also the D&E procedure" [https://www.law.cornell.edu/supct/html/99-830.ZC1.html ''Stenberg v. Carhart'' (99–830) 530 U.S. 914 (2000), O'Connor, J., concurring], ''law.cornell.edu''</ref> Justices Ginsburg and Stevens joined each other's concurrences. Justice Stevens stated that "the notion that either of these two equally gruesome procedures performed at this late [[Pregnancy (mammals)#Gestation periods|stage of gestation]] is more akin to infanticide than the other{{nbsp}}... is simply irrational."<ref>[https://www.law.cornell.edu/supct/html/99-830.ZC.html ''Stenberg v. Carhart'' (99–830) 530 U.S. 914 (2000), Stevens, J., concurring], ''law.cornell.edu''</ref> Justice Ginsburg stated that the "law does not save any fetus from destruction, for it targets only 'a method of performing abortion'."<ref>[https://www.law.cornell.edu/supct/html/99-830.ZC2.html ''Stenberg v. Carhart'' (99–830) 530 U.S. 914 (2000), Ginsburg, J., concurring], ''law.cornell.edu''</ref>

Justice Thomas's dissent stated, "The 'partial birth' gives the fetus an autonomy which separates it from the right of the woman to choose treatments for her own body."<ref>[https://www.law.cornell.edu/supct/html/99-830.ZD3.html ''Stenberg v. Carhart'' (99–830) 530 U.S. 914 (2000), Thomas, J., dissenting], ''law.cornell.edu''</ref> Justice Scalia joined Justice Thomas's dissent and also wrote his own, stating that partial-birth abortion is "so horrible that the most clinical description of it evokes a shudder of revulsion" and that this case proved ''Casey'' was "unworkable".<ref>[https://www.law.cornell.edu/supct/html/99-830.ZD1.html ''Stenberg v. Carhart'' (99–830) 530 U.S. 914 (2000), Scalia, J., dissenting], ''law.cornell.edu''</ref> Chief Justice Rehnquist joined the two dissents by Justices Scalia and Thomas.<ref>[https://www.law.cornell.edu/supct/html/99-830.ZD.html ''Stenberg v. Carhart'' (99–830) 530 U.S. 914 (2000), Rehnquist, C. J., dissenting], ''law.cornell.edu''</ref>

Justice Kennedy, who had co-authored ''Casey'', dissented in ''Stenberg''. He described in graphic detail exactly how a fetus dies while being [[Dismemberment|dismembered]] during a dilation and evacuation procedure. He reasoned that since Nebraska was not seeking to prohibit it, the state was free to ban partial-birth abortion.<ref name="Stenberg">{{ussc|name=Stenberg v. Carhart|volume=530|page=914|pin=958–59|year=2000}} ("The fetus, in many cases, dies just as a human adult or child would: It bleeds to death as it is torn from limb from limb. The fetus can be alive at the beginning of the dismemberment process and can survive for a time while its limbs are being torn off.").</ref>