The Supreme Court ruling of Roe v. Wade fifty-two years ago was a travesty of justice. Judges are to uphold the law, protect the innocent, and punish law breakers. That did not happen in this case. Their ruling ran contrary to natural law, as well as our own founding documents, and the laws of almost every state at the time. The all-male court failed to protect innocent life in the womb and comparatively innocent women from exploitation by men. They failed to punish those who broke the laws of the land, hold those who told women lies accountable, and condem doctors who violated the standard of profession enshired in the ancient Oath of Hippocrates.
The recent Supreme Court ruling overturning their 1973 decision was a positive development in that it broke the strangle-hold of the federal government on the issue. Sadly though, it fell far short of a true victory. In fact, I feel it was perhaps even a loss for the prolife movement. Only time will tell. What should have been a strong proclamation of personhood and duty of all, especially the state, to protect the life of the unborn, was instead a mediocre assertion that abortion is fundamentally a state issue, not the purview of the federal government.
While this may sound good at first sight, the problem is, the court was conspicuously silent about the 14th Amendment or our Declaration of Independence in their final decision. Essentially, they were quiet about the most fundamental issue in the discussion: whether an unborn baby was entitled to equal protection under law.
I am not a lawyer, but this salient silence does seems like it allows precedence for future cases to argue that the unborn are non-persons under law. It logically follows that, if they are non-persons under law, then what legitimate interest does the state have in enacting laws that dictate an individual’s decision? I am sure our friends at ADF were aware of this and had their reasons in pursuing the legal arguments that they did. From my small view point though, it seems like dangerous ground, especially in our current social climate.
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We need to not be silient about the tragedy that abortion is and brings to individuals as well as the hurt it causes in our society at large. Several years ago, I wrote the following as part of an article about the need for men to speak out against abortion:
Lest we forget the scale of the inhumanity of abortion: imagine, somewhere, there is a heavenly plane. There, as far as the eye can reach, a million-million throats are shouting.
A million-million voices are begging for justice.
A million-million tiny knees are bowed together before the throne of their Maker.
Their inhospitable earthly existence unacknowledged and forgotten – their names never uttered but before the smiling face of God, their Creator.
They are the innocents. They are the voices that never cried. The faces that were never loved. The lives that were cut short by unimaginable violence. They are witnesses to the collective tragedy unfolding hourly before our eyes.
No matter the cost, no matter the derision: we cannot be silent, lest our answer to the Almighty be, when rebuked, “Was I my brother’s keeper?”.
As God gives ability, let us be not silent but share our voice for the voiceless with thoughtfulness and compassion.
Open thy mouth for the dumb in the cause of all such as are appointed to destruction.
Prov. 31:8
