Ongoing post: Supreme Court Backs Ban on Partial-birth abortion

Update 2: Something to watch on this issue is how the various presidentical candidates react to the decision. Drudge has been assembling some of them:

• HILLARY: 'Erosion of our constitutional rights'...
• GIULIANI: 'I agree with it'...
• OBAMA: 'I strongly disagree'...
• ROMNEY: 'A step forward'...
• MCCAIN: I'm very happy...
• EDWARDS: 'I could not disagree more strongly'...

And there you have it.

Original story: From the Associated Press:

The Supreme Court upheld the nationwide ban on a controversial abortion procedure Wednesday, handing abortion opponents the long- awaited victory they expected from a more conservative bench.

The 5-4 ruling said the Partial Birth Abortion Ban Act that Congress passed and President Bush signed into law in 2003 does not violate a woman's constitutional right to an abortion.

The opponents of the act "have not demonstrated that the Act would be unconstitutional in a large fraction of relevant cases," Justice Anthony Kennedy wrote in the majority opinion.

The decision pitted the court's conservatives against its liberals, with President Bush's two appointees, Chief Justice John Roberts and Justice Samuel Alito, siding with the majority.

Justices Clarence Thomas and Antonin Scalia also were in the majority.
It was the first time the court banned a specific procedure in a case over how—not whether—to perform an abortion.

... The law bans a method of ending a pregnancy, rather than limiting when an abortion can be performed. [my emphasis]

[More...]

Via the law blokes at Fumare, more details can be found here at Scotusblog.

More:

Bettnet: "Is this the beginning of the end of legalized abortion or just a blip on the rocket-sled ride to the bottom? Only time will tell."

CWNews: "The decision announced on April 18 was the first major test for the Supreme Court on the abortion issue since the appointments of Chief Justice John Roberts and Justice Samuel Alito. Both new members of the court voted with the majority, along with Justices Kennedy, Scalia, and Thomas. "

CNA: "The court accepted arguments on behalf of the legislation which claimed that the procedure, which involves partially removing the child then crushing or cutting its skull, qualifies as infanticide and not as abortion."

"All five of the majority-voting Justices are Catholic."

(CNA has very good coverage of the story and I recommend reading it.)

Amy links this post at MOJ by Rob Vischer and a longer one by Rick Garnett.