The last sentence is patently false, as can be demonstrated by inheritance and probate laws. The very abortion statutes overturned by Roe are futher evidence of the falsity of proposition that prenatal persons did not enjoy the protection of the law. Furthermore, by your logic and interpretation of the Fourteenth Amendment, non-naturalized aliens would not be persons either, because they were not born in the United States. It is pure sophistry. It's like saying that because the Constitution requires that a person must be at least age twenty-five to be a Representative, that human beings under the age of twenty-five are not persons.
Cordially,
Those laws allowed children born within nine months of a predeceased parent to inherit. That did not give them any substantive rights, however, until such time as they were born! (That is ignoring, of course, any nasty rule-against-perpetuity problems!)
Furthermore, by your logic and interpretation of the Fourteenth Amendment, non-naturalized aliens would not be persons either, because they were not born in the United States.
Under the Fourteenth Amdendments, they are not. Under other laws (generally treaties with their home countries), they are entitled to basic due process protections.
Good post, though. It contained more than bumper sticker witticisms or "You're a liberal!" accusations.