Roe V. Wade Is Finally Overturned! Thank God!
I didn’t believe (though I hoped) such a momentous occasion would come true in my lifetime: what an honor to see history in the making.
Knowing that after almost 50 years, such a catastrophic and terrible mistake was finally corrected felt so vindicating and beautiful—not just as a Catholic, but also as a woman, an American, and as a Catholic.
I’m elated for all the millions of lives who’ll get to see the light of day from now on. Especially as Utah has just also banned abortions after 18* weeks.
(*1st side note: For those hating on Utah and the USA in general, for what it’s worth, neither this state nor this country have the most restrictive abortion laws.)
But others aren’t so happy. They claim that abortion was a right “enshrined” in our Constitution (it wasn’t) and that overturning Roe vs. Wade takes away women’s autonomy (it doesn’t).
First of all, it was never a right: the SCOTUS simply—albeit incorrectly—stated that the federal government is allowed to permit or forbid abortions (however, according to the Constitution, it’s not: that decision belongs to the states).
The Constitution + The SCOTUS Take on Abortion
View this post on Instagram
As Live Action put it, in 1973, the seven men* forming the majority of the Supreme Court claimed that a “constitutional right to privacy” includes a woman’s ability to end the life of her child through all nine months of pregnancy.
(*2nd sidenote: Isn’t it funny how abortionists and so-called “women’s rights advocates” celebrate seven MEN deciding that abortions are fine… Despite numerous protests against the men in the government who supposedly control their bodies… But they riot and incite violence when fewer men PLUS a woman decide that that decision is better left to the states?)
Justice Harry Blackmun wrote the Roe opinion* but admitted that “If prenatal personhood is established, the case for abortion collapses. For the fetus’ right to life would then be guaranteed, specifically by the 14th Amendment.“
(*3rd sidenote: Even Ruth Bader Ginsburg wasn’t a fan of how the Supreme Court went about dealing with abortions.)
“… No State [shall] deprive any person of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law; nor deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws.”
However!
What is a person?
When it was ratified, dictionaries didn’t include birth in the definition of a person. But Webster’s in 1864 stated a person was a living human being. Children in the womb are human: therefore, they’re people.
How was abortion practiced in the past?
The state practice regarding abortion fell in line w/centuries of English Common Law tradition, treating abortion as the wrongful killing of a human being. When the 14th Amendment was ratified in 1868, states widely recognized preborn babies as persons.
E.g., Nearly every state had criminal legislation prohibiting abortion; at least 28 jurisdictions labeled abortion as “an offense against the person,” and at the time of its adoption, almost everyone understood “person” included prenatal life.
What’s the proper understanding of the Amendment?
Because science shows preborn children are human, then they’re also people who demand complete protection under the Constitution. Justice Hugo Black even clarified that the history of the Amendment “proves that the people were told that its purpose was to protect weak and helpless human beings.”
Circling back, a baby’s right to life is guaranteed by the infamous 14th Amendment, while one’s right to kill them isn’t.
Don’t let anyone tell you otherwise.
Speaking of which: Medical treatments
As for treating miscarriages and ectopic pregnancies, and delivering a baby vaginally or via Cesarean section, neither of those procedures are the same as conducting/getting an abortion.
And yes, I’ve seen some abortionists claim they’re the same and “fear” for women who won’t receive these “life-saving treatments.”
Let me tell you one thing: Treating miscarriages and ectopic pregnancies where a baby was very much wanted and loved has nothing to do with an abortion, which aims to kill an unwanted baby.
Even Planned Parenthood explains that the procedures involved in treating an ectopic pregnancy are vastly different from those for an abortion.
“Forbidding abortions ends the woman’s autonomy!”
Cases of rape and incest (which account for 1% of abortions) will remain the exceptions.
Now that that’s out of the way, didn’t the pregnant woman have AUTONOMY when she chose to have sex, forego birth control, and not require a condom?
Because there are TONS of resources (I say “tons” since I haven’t counted the 100s-1000s available, and new ones come up every day) out there to ensure both mom and baby get the help they need.
Her “autonomy” isn’t more valuable than the baby’s life.
I’m pro-baby if the baby’s in the womb, the delivery room, and back at home: But I’m also pro-woman carrying a baby, giving birth, and caring for that baby.
The baby doesn’t have to die at the hand of someone crushing and sucking their brain, tearing their limbs off, inserting a lethal injection into their heart or head, and/or suctioning them apart or suctioning them to death.
A preborn baby is an actual person and “choosing life” (be it to release a burden for the mom, or by killing the baby so that he/she doesn’t get brought up in a bad environment) shouldn’t entail slaughtering them for the sake of convenience.
In Sum
Aside from the mere one percent of abortion cases that came from rape and incest, abortions are conducted or desired out of CONVENIENCE.
However, “nothing justifies committing violence against a child.”
I guess you may say I’m pro-choice: I support those who choose abstinence, contraception, parenthood, and adoption. But I don’t support choosing to murder a child.
No baby deserves to die for the sake of convenience as though he or she were a pesky fly at your backyard barbecue. A baby isn’t your slave, your property that you can do with whatever you want or dispose of whenever you want.
CHOOSE LIFE.
On my next post I’ll delve deeper into NYC Cardinal Dolan’s recent comments on the violence and the vitriol against anti-abortionists. They’re really good!
