The Supreme Court has handed down what is being called one of the biggest setbacks for the abortion rights movement in years. On Wednesday, the court voted five to four to uphold a ban on a certain type of abortion done in the second trimester. This marks the first time the Supreme Court has ruled that a specific abortion procedure can be banned. It’s also the first time since Roe v. Wade that justices approved an abortion restriction that does not contain an exception for the health of the woman. Doctors can now be jailed for up to two years if they violate the Partial Birth Abortion Ban Act of 2003. Both of President Bush’s nominees to the court — Chief Justice John Roberts and Samuel Alito — voted for the ban. In her dissenting opinion, Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg called the court’s decision “alarming” and “irrational.” Ginsburg took the rare step of reading parts of her dissent from the bench. She said, “For the first time since Roe, the court blesses a prohibition with no exception protecting a woman’s health.” Writing in the majority, Justice Kennedy claimed the ban was in fact good for women because it protects them from undergoing a procedure that they might not fully understand and that they might later regret. Eleanor Smeal of the Feminist Majority said the ruling was a direct assault on Roe v. Wade.

Eleanor Smeal: “This decision is an invitation to legislators both at the federal and state level to further restrict abortion, and the Supreme Court will let it happen.”

Anti-abortion groups hailed the decision.

Jay Sekulow, an attorney for the American Center for Law and Justice: “It’s going to be a huge momentum shift for the pro-life movement. The opinion is very, very significant.”