I just read your tag line. And I had to comment.
One of the biggest myths about abortion is that it was federally illegal pre Roe v Wade.
If Roe V Wade is overturned today, guess what will happen....
absolutely nothing.
You see before Roe, abortion was a State's right's issue. Most states had banned it. What Roe did was make EVERY state have to have legalized abortion.
Dear LauraleeBraswell,
Well, before Roe, only two states generally permitted abortion on demand, New York and California. About a dozen and a half states had liberalized their laws to permit "therapeutic abortions," which usually covered issues like life of mother, serious physical health of mother, sometimes mental health issues of mother, serious genetic deformities, rape, and incest. Sort of the exception cases that folks talk about today.
Most states, if I recall, were a bit more restrictive.
But read my tagline again. I'm not saying that overturning Roe is SUFFICIENT to protect EVERY unborn child in law. I'm saying that overturning Roe is NECESSARY to protect ANY unborn child in law.
Combined with Doe v. Bolton, and with the accreted case law built up by the courts through the last three decades, the regime of Roe makes it specifically impossible for the Congress or any state legislature to protect ANY unborn child at all in law.
Overturning Roe merely returns us to the status quo ante bellum (pre-Roe).
Then, the battle must be fought in Congress and in every state legislature.
And it's likely that we'll have a patchwork of laws that range from very restrictive legal regimes that permit abortion only in very exceptional circumstances to the nearly-abortion-on-demand legal regimes of NY and CA. However, even NY and CA did not have as permissive, as completely-open abortion-on-demand legal regimes as has been forced on us by Roe and its spawn.
It's also likely that at the national level, some overall framework will evolve at the federal level. In many European countries, abortion is restricted to no more than 20 weeks or so, or even earlier. I wouldn't be surprised if Congress were to pass something like that, and then states would coordinate their laws under those federal standards.
That really isn't enough, in my view. I guess I'm an "extremist" on this issue, and I just don't think direct abortion should be legal, as I can't imagine when it can be legally permissible to directly, purposely commit an act that has as its primary intention to kill an innocent human being.
And even after the states and Congress come to compromises on abortion, significantly restricting abortion from what we have now, I'll fight on, to build a cultural consensus for laws that protect the human rights of even more unborn children.
I will continue to push, even then, for an amendment to the Constitution that explicitly recognizes the human rights of unborn children, and requires that the law respect the fundamental human rights of unborn children.
But the difference will be that we will all, pro-abort and pro-life, get to make our case in the political arena, and the decisions to which we come as a society will enjoy the consensus of American society. This is especially true if we eventually build a cultural consensus that causes the adoption of a human life constitutional amendment. After all, if the vast majority of folks don't want it, it'll be tough to get two thirds of each house to pass such an amendment, and three fourths of the states to ratify it.
But it all starts with overturning Roe, which is tyrant-imposed "law," unwanted and unloved by informed and free people.
sitetest
Dear LauraleeBraswell,
"If Roe V Wade is overturned today, guess what will happen....
"absolutely nothing."
I forgot about that comment. Actually, a lot would happen automatically. All state laws in effect on Jan 21, 1973 proscribing abortion not otherwise repealed since Roe, or otherwise overturned by state courts would go into effect, again. As well, a number of states have passed laws, post-Roe, stating that abortion would be severely restricted therein should Roe be overturned.
I forget the exact number, but the legal abortion regimes in most states would change substantially, and in all states where change occurred, it would be to become more restrictive, ranging from near-total bans to modest restrictions concerning fetal age, etc.
No, overturning Roe would have a significant instantaneous effect. As well, as described in my previous post, it would be the beginning of the next phase of the controversy in the United States.
sitetest