Maintaining access to safe abortion in the United States: a post-Gonzales primer and guide to action.

Women's health specialists were rightfully alarmed by the April 2007 Supreme Court decision in Gonzales v. Carhart. In criminalizing the “intact dilation and extraction” abortion procedure and banning its use even to protect a woman's health, the U.S. Supreme Court has—with shocking ease— rejected science, overthrown legal precedent safeguarding women's health and seized authority over medical professionals in determining best clinical practices. While the health and legal implications of the decision are deeply disturbing, its potential “chilling” effect on the number of providers may have very real and devastating consequences for patients.