In a stunning and unprecedented series of developments, this week someone leaked a Supreme Court document suggesting that justices will soon overturn the ruling in the case Roe v. Wade that legalized abortion in the United States. The document – an initial draft of the majority opinion written by Judge Samuel Alito – was obtained and published by Politico.
The draft opinion is an adamant repudiation of the Supreme Court’s decision of 1973, in which seven judges dressed in black usurped the legislative prerogative of Congress by inserting into the Constitution a “right to privacy” that allows the use of lethal violence against human beings. unborn .
Immediately, commentators noted that the leaked draft was another attempt at usurpation – this time an attempt by elite leftist activists to usurp the judicial process. As if on cue, President Joe Biden soon declared that a Supreme Court reversal in the Roe case would be “really a pretty radical decision”, warning that “if sustained, a whole range of rights would be in question.”
President Barack Obama’s attorney general, Neal Katya, revealed that the opinion made him want to cry. Other liberal commentators have called for a “revolutionary” response if the court actually overturns Roe v. Wade.
However, an inversion of Roe is “radical” only in the sense that it would be a return to the civilizational norms for human dignity. Roe‘s decision was “radical” and “revolutionary” in the sense of subverting the entire western tradition of human rights.
Because of Roe, the gains of the civil rights movement were undone in an instant. Some Ivy League lawyers decided that a whole class of human beings – unborn beings – would be denied justice and equality. These unborn beings now have far fewer rights than many bird species, and the body count of Roe-enabled kills far exceeds the total deaths caused by World War II.
How did Roe harm American society? Here are seven ways:
- Abortion hurts men. Abortion on demand means that many parents must watch their children being killed against their will. A few months, years or even decades later, the parents discover that the child they would like to nurture has been killed without their consent.
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- Abortion harms marriages and families. Abortion harms families in a number of ways, including the destruction of a baby, the increase in male irresponsibility, the marginalization of fatherhood, and the implicit message that family members can use lethal force to solve their problems.
- Abortion undermines justice and equality. Abortion should not be a matter of “choice” any more than other situations that involve taking the life of an innocent person. When we allow our citizens to take the lives of innocent people, we undermine the claim that the United States is a democracy governed by laws. Our nation no longer believes that we are all created equal; we no longer seek justice for everyone.
- Abortion undermines the system of checks and balances. In Roe v. Wade and subsequent decisions, the majority of the Supreme Court ignored democratic debate and legislation in fabricating a constitutional right to abortion.
- Abortion minimizes the mediating institutions of society. Abortion on demand assumes that an individual (the mother) has the right to take a life without the consent of the baby’s father or siblings. This kind of individual autonomy pushes the United States further into a cultural environment where the only important actors are the ever-expanding state and the lone individual.
In short, the legalization of abortion has harmed society in general.
Abortion on demand, created by Roe
, harmed babies, women, men, families, democratic norms and cultural institutions. It has eroded the moral foundations of our civic community and dulled our collective consciences by normalizing lethal violence against innocent humans.
Bruce Ashford is a political speechwriter and senior fellow at the Kirby Laing Center for Public Theology in Cambridge, England.
©2022 The Daily Signal. Published with permission. Original in English.