Posted on 05/22/2019 9:48:24 AM PDT by billorites
If Roe v. Wade was intended to resolve the question of abortion in American law, it failed miserably. More than 45 years after the Supreme Court decision that (together with a companion case, Doe v. Bolton) effectively legalized abortion on demand in the United States, the abortion wars rage on. Far from settling the matter once and for all, Roe turned abortion into perhaps the most unsettled subject in American politics.
Public opinion is as conflicted as ever. Asked by Gallup whether they consider themselves pro-choice or pro-life when it comes to abortion, Americans split right down the middle. Only a narrow minority (29%) of the public thinks abortion should be legal under any circumstances; an even narrower minority (18%) thinks it should be banned in all cases. A large majority of Americans consistently says that Roe should not be overturned. Yet large majorities also support specific restrictions on abortion, such as a 24-hour waiting period, parental consent before a minor can have an abortion, and requiring that patients be notified about the risks of, and alternatives to, abortion.
Had the Supreme Court in 1973 left the making of abortion policy up to the states, it is likely that the political process would long ago have muddled its way to a compromise that would have satisfied enough voters to remove the issue from the spotlight. But by yanking abortion away from legislators, the Roe majority more or less guaranteed that Americans would continue fighting about it. It certainly polarized the two parties. Republicans became officially and explicitly antiabortion, writing language into their national platform that proclaims the inviolable right to life of the unborn and endorsing a constitutional amendment that would ban nearly all abortions. Democrats became adamant defenders of abortion on demand
(Excerpt) Read more at bostonglobe.com ...
If, as I believe life begins at the moment of conception, then abortion is murder. Some have tried to argue life doesn't being at conception.
The only difference between the baby at inception and later is time and cells.
Every bit of DNA that determines the uniqueness of the human is present at conception.
As someone has previously asked, "If life doesn't begin at conception, why does PP want condoms in the schools?"
I’m not sure that the Left wanted this issue to be settled.
I don’t think they wanted to be settled now.
They are a divisive group of people, they wanted to be divisive, and still do.
Is abortion written anywhere in the Constitution of the United States? Any honest judge would have said No! It is a State issue.
Bring back traditional values.
“If life doesn’t begin at conception, why does PP want condoms in the schools?”
************
A very astute statement.
When does life begin has two answers. If one means life as in the ability to grow, develop, and self-actuate as distinguished from all things that can’t do those basic functions, then life begins at conception. If one means a unique individual who can survive outside the womb, then life begins at the time a fetus is viable. Either way, abortion should never be allowed beyond the point when a fetus is viable.
The Left tries to use the "viability" argument but it too fails for the reason noted.
Yes, but not strictly true. The baby cannot survive outside the womb without the care of an adult, not necessarily the parents. The main point being that if any abortion must be legal, it should strictly be limited to the first trimester. Personally, if abortion must be legal, then I would like laws that require the woman to first explore viable means to have her baby adopted rather than killed.
It will not be settled ever. It may well be poliltically settled for at ime if the USSC rules that RvW was in error and strikes it down. Then it goes to the states and the left will be even more shrill and will be violent in trying to force it onto all the states multiply and state by state. None of this would amount to a hill of beans except for the three Progressive Amendments of the Wilson era i.e. the 16th, 17th, and 19th. those three together set the nation on an inexorable path to a totalist administrative state the apparatus of which is almost completely in place.
It will not be settled ever. It may well be politically settled for at ime if the USSC rules that RvW was in error and strikes it down. Then it goes to the states and the left will be even more shrill and will be violent in trying to force it onto all the states multiply and state by state. None of this would amount to a hill of beans except for the three Progressive Amendments of the Wilson era i.e. the 16th, 17th, and 19th. those three together set the nation on an inexorable path to a totalist administrative state the apparatus of which is almost completely in place.
“If one means a unique individual who can survive outside the womb, then life begins at the time a fetus is viable.”
Then I guess preemies aren’t alive and we can just toss them in the garbage can.
What an odd takeaway from what I posted. A premature baby, by definition, is a unique individual who can survive outside the womb with medical assistance. What on earth made you think otherwise in anything I posted? I was just pointing out the two different interpretations of when life begins.
My own personal certainty is that the life of an individual begins at conception...in some respects even before conception because it takes a live egg and a live sperm to effect conception. In other words, it takes a male and a female no matter what the Left says is possible with the various genders they push. When the sperm and egg come together, a new individual life begins.
“A premature baby, by definition, is a unique individual who can survive outside the womb with medical assistance. What on earth made you think otherwise in anything I posted?”
Maybe because you didn’t say anything about “with medical assistance”. If that isn’t included in the definition, then preemies become disposable too.
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