The Supreme Court narrowly decided Wednesday in favor of President Bush's Partial-Birth Abortion Ban Act, according to the Associated Press.
Introduced in 2003, the act has been debated upon by members of both parties and was considered by many, until Wednesday, to be unconstitutional. The Supreme Court's 5-4 vote is the first restriction of abortion since the historic Roe v. Wade case of 1973, which declared abortion a constitutional right.
Amanda Baxa, vice president of K-State's chapter of Students for the Right to Life, said she was glad members of the Supreme Court decided the way they did.
"I was pleased that they did vote for it, but I would have liked to have seen something more strict," said Baxa, junior in life sciences. "The bill they did vote for is not going to do much."
"The thing is, this is going to ban a specific type of abortion, but this isn't going to put an end to abortion in general."
Partial-birth abortion is a form of abortion that takes place late in the second trimester, according to the Associated Press. Federal appeals courts have ruled against the ban three times because the act does not include any exception for women who are at serious health risk because of pregnancy.
Angela Hubler, director of K-State's women's studies program, said she did not think the decision would have much of an immediate effect.
"I think it's less important in terms of immediate consequences," she said of the ban. "It's a fairly rare procedure, and it's not even performed in Kansas."
Hubler said she thought the decision would foreshadow what should be expected of the Supreme Court in the future.
"What this indicates is the new direction the Supreme Court will take on the abortion issue in the future," she said. "Justice Ruth Ginsburg articulates what that significance is, and it's that the court refuses to take previous court decisions into consideration."
In Ginsburg's dissent, she stated that the vote "cannot be understood as anything other than an effort to chip away a right declared again and again by this court, and with increasing comprehension of its centrality to women's lives."
Hubler said that her interpretation of what Ginsburg was really saying in her statement was, "This is an opportunity to attack the right of abortion, and the court has taken that opportunity."
Baxa said the court's decision most likely will open the floodgate of controversy surrounding abortion.
"I think this is going to bring out the debate again," she said. "It's definitely going to get people talking."

