Contact: Jennifer Mason, Personhood USA, 202-595-3500

WASHINGTON, June 28, 2012 /Christian Newswire/ -- In a move shocking the nation, Chief Justice of the Supreme Court John Roberts joined Clinton appointees Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg and Justice Stephen Breyer and Obama appointees Justice Elena Kagan and Justice Sonia Sotomayor in upholding Obamacare's individual mandate to purchase health insurance. Writing for the majority, the Chief Justice held that the penalty for not complying with the mandate would survive under Congress' taxing power.

The decision is cause for grave concern for those in the pro-life movement who have, for decades, been advocating for a strategy of electing conservative presidents and relying on their Supreme Court appointees to hold to a textual constitutional interpretation, overturn Roe v. Wade, and return the authority to protect the preborn to the states.

For example, in a 2010 online debate, LifeNews.com editor and personhood opponent Steven Ertelt wrote: "The pro-life movement needs real unity behind the only next step that will save lives -- defeating President Barack Obama, installing a pro-life president and Senate, and adding that one additional justice who may prove to be the deciding vote to end Roe and pave the way for the kind of amendments and abortion bans we all want to see."

Chief Justice Roberts was appointed by President George W. Bush in 2005 following the death of Chief Justice William Rehnquist. Thursday's Obamacare ruling is the second major decision this week in which the Chief Justice has sided with the liberal wing of the High Court. On Monday, the Court ruled to strike a majority of provisions in the controversial Arizona immigration law.

Roberts' first opportunity to rule on an abortion case came in 2007’s Gonzalez vs. Carhart. The Chief Justice joined the majority in upholding the federal partial birth abortion ban under the 1992 Planned Parenthood vs. Casey pro-abortion precedent, but did not concur with Justices Antonin Scalia and Clarence Thomas that Casey and Roe should be overturned.

President Ronald Reagan, who many consider to be the first pro-life president in history, appointed Justices Sandra Day O'Connor and Justice Anthony Kennedy -- two members of the "centrist coalition" in Casey. The third member contributing to current abortion jurisprudence by joining in that opinion was Justice David Souter, a George H.W. Bush appointee. In fact, 8 of the 9 sitting justices on the case were Republican appointees.

"Enough is enough. Placing all of our hopes in judicial appointees has proven to be a disaster. It is time to have an honest conversation about where we go from here," said Gualberto Garcia Jones, J.D., Legal Analyst for Personhood USA. "Personhood is a strategy in which the end is a federal constitutional amendment recognizing the right to life of every human being, and the best way to achieve the goal in our lifetimes is to create the necessary social tension by passing state-level measures. The movement must unite behind personhood because today's decision demonstrates clearly that judges cannot be trusted to protect our rights. Ending abortion will require us to demand equality for every human being and assert the power of the people to initiate life-affirming social progress."