Judge Edith Jones and Mandatory Ultrasound: A Blast from the Anti-Choice Past

Last year, anti-choice Texas Gov. Rick Perry signed into law a bill forcing a woman seeking abortion care in the Lone Star State to undergo an ultrasound and view the image--even if she does not want to, and even if her doctor does not recommend it.

Instead of a woman and her doctor deciding whether an ultrasound is right for her, politicians in Austin have made that decision for them.

And just this week, a federal court in Texas ruled that this new mandate on women could be enforced even while the courts continue to review whether the law is constitutional.

Who wrote the court's opinion allowing Texas' mandatory ultrasound law to go into effect?

That would be Judge Edith Jones.

The name Edith Jones not setting off any alarm bells? Let's step into the DeLorean for a moment, and take a trip to the land of anti-choice court decisions of years gone by.

First stop: 1985. (One year before I was born.) President Reagan appoints the ultra-conservative Jones to the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals. She takes office just days before her 36th birthday. Remember, federal judges serve for life.

Next: 1990. Justice William J. Brennan--one of the U.S. Supreme Court's greatest champions of a woman's constitutional right to privacy--retires. President George H.W. Bush considers nominating Judge Jones to replace him. Instead, he nominates David Souter.

1992. In Planned Parenthood of Southeastern Pennsylvania v. Casey, the Supreme Court rules 5-4 to uphold Roe v. Wade and a woman's right to choose safe, legal abortion. Justice Souter votes to preserve the key principles of Roe v. Wade. If Edith Jones had been on the court instead, it is very likely that the case would have gone the other way, and that Roe v. Wade would have been overturned.

1993. Judge Jones votes to uphold Mississippi's dangerous parental-consent mandate, which requires a young woman seeking abortion care to receive permission from both parents--:even if she comes from a home where there is physical or emotional abuse. She said Mississippi's mandate "helps to safeguard the interests of both parents and the family unit."

2004. In McCorvey v. Hill, Judge Jones expresses her desire to see Roe v. Wade overturned: "One may fervently hope that the Court will someday acknowledge such developments and re-evaluate Roe and Casey accordingly."

The Philadelphia Inquirer called Judge Jones' opinion "perhaps the strongest official assault on Roe from a sitting federal judge, and the boldest abortion statement by a potential high court nominee."

2005. There are two vacancies on the Supreme Court. Once again, Jones makes the short list of potential nominees. In the end, President George W. Bush appoints John Roberts and Samuel Alito--both of whom vote to uphold the Federal Abortion Ban, a law that criminalizes safe abortion procedures.

Back to the future--and beyond. Judge Jones continues her anti-choice activism from the bench. She will serve as a federal judge for as long as she wants to.

The lesson of this long, strange, Edith Jones trip? The president's power to nominate judges to the federal courts matters--a lot.

Federal judges can determine who gets to make a woman's most personal, private medical decisions: the woman herself in consultation with her doctor, or politicians and bureaucrats whom she's never met and who don't know (or care) about her circumstances.

Edith Jones is an unfortunate example of an anti-choice judge appointed by an anti-choice president who will continue to rule on women's reproductive lives for a very long time.

And the next president could nominate enough Supreme Court justices to determine the future of Roe v. Wade and women's constitutional right to choose for decades to come.