L.A. County Loses Plea to Bury 16,500 Fetuses
The Supreme Court today let stand a ruling rejecting efforts to bury 16,500 aborted fetuses and embryos found discarded in a backyard in Woodland Hills, Calif.
The justices refused to hear Los Angeles County officials’ appeal of state court rulings that block plans, endorsed by President Reagan, for burial of the fetal remains. The lower courts had decided that such a burial would violate the state Constitution’s separation of church and state.
Last September, the California Supreme Court refused to hear the county’s appeal of the Court of Appeal ruling that remains found in a shipping container in 1982--including 193 fetuses believed to be beyond the 20th week of development--cannot be buried as if they had been born.
Reagan wrote a letter in 1982 endorsing plans for memorial services and burial “for these children,” saying the ceremony might help “strengthen our resolve to end this national tragedy” of abortion.
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