A liberal Supreme Court justice, ruling in Monday’s abortion rights case, disparaged layers of regulations targeting wrongdoers as ineffective, a line that is being circulated among Second Amendment advocates who agree that more gun control won’t stop bad guys with guns.
Writing the majority opinion in the Texas abortion case, Justice Stephen Breyer cited the headline-grabbing case of abortion doctor Kermit Gosnell in shrugging off how regulations on clinic behavior like Texas wanted wouldn’t have stopped his criminal acts.
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Wrote Breyer: “Gosnell’s behavior was terrible wrong. But there is no reason to believe that an extra layer of regulation would have affected that behavior. Determined wrongdoers, already ignoring existing statutes and safety measures, are unlikely to be convinced to adopt safe practices by a new overlay of regulations.”
A similar case has been made for adding gun control regulations by liberals who believe that even a small addition will stop killings.
But if the same thinking by Breyer were applied, then Second Amendment advocates suggest other layers of gun control laws won’t have an impact either.
Americans United for Life, an anti-abortion group, took note of Breyer’s comments. AUL’s Acting President and Senior Counsel Clarke Forsythe tied the two in a statement:
“It’s interesting to see the Supreme Court take such a dim view of the impact of health and safety standards for abortion clinics while there is so much interest in increased regulation of guns. By their logic, all gun regulations are nonsense because the court puts complete trust in self regulation, as evidenced by Justice Breyer’s disparaging statement of the need for high standards of care in abortion clinics.”
In the case, the Court struck down Texas requirements that abortion clinics comply with the same health and safety standards as other medical facilities. Pro-abortion advocates viewed the law as a backdoor attempt to shut the facilities down.
“In striking down these commonsense requirements, the Supreme Court has essentially accepted the abortion industry’s argument that it should be allowed to keep its profits high and patient care standards low,” said Forsythe.
Paul Bedard, the Washington Examiner’s “Washington Secrets” columnist, can be contacted at [email protected]
