{"id":413,"date":"2015-08-06T09:12:34","date_gmt":"2015-08-06T14:12:34","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/admin.patheos.com\/blogs\/hedgerow\/?p=413"},"modified":"2020-01-16T09:23:09","modified_gmt":"2020-01-16T14:23:09","slug":"scholars-argue-roe-v-wade-is-actually-un-constitutional","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/hedgerow\/2015\/08\/scholars-argue-roe-v-wade-is-actually-un-constitutional\/","title":{"rendered":"Scholars Argue Roe v. Wade is Actually Un-Constitutional"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

On Jan. 22, 1973, the U.S. Supreme Court in\u00a0Roe v. Wade<\/a><\/em>\u00a0and\u00a0Doe v. Bolton<\/a><\/em>\u00a0legalized the procedure of killing a pre-born child in the womb (abortion) or any reason before \u201cfetal viability,\u201d which it\u00a0loosely defined<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The court stipulated that abortion must be permitted for \u201chealth reasons\u201d of the woman\u2014up until birth. Yet its broad definition of \u201chealth reasons\u201d\u00a0essentially allowed for any reason\u00a0<\/a>and legalized abortion on demand.<\/p>\n

The court\u2019s ruling violated the Constitution on several grounds, legal scholars note. The majority opinion expressed by Justice Harry Blackmun reasoned that the Due Process Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment protected a woman\u2019s \u201cliberty,\u201d which included a \u201cright of privacy \u2026 broad enough to encompass\u201d her right to have an abortion.<\/p>\n

Yet, the court ignored a specific class of people \u2013the unborn\u2013 also protected by the Due Process Clause, effectually creating \u201ca constitutional right of some human beings to kill other human beings,\u201d\u00a0attests<\/a>\u00a0University of St. Thomas law professor Michael Stokes Paulsen.<\/p>\n

University of Pennsylvania law professor Kermit Roosevelt, who supports legalized abortion,\u00a0points out<\/a>: \u201cAs a constitutional argument\u00a0Roe<\/em>\u00a0is barely coherent. The Court pulled its fundamental right to choose more or less from the constitutional ether.\u201d<\/p>\n

In his\u00a0dissenting opinion<\/a>, Justice William Rehnquist wrote, \u201cTo reach its result the Court necessarily has had to find within the scope of the Fourteenth Amendment a right that was apparently completely unknown to the drafters of the Amendment.\u201d<\/p>\n

The court\u2019s ruling violated the U.S. Constitution\u2019s most fundamental principle: human equality and the protection of one\u2019s right to live. The Constitution requires that every human life be protected, regardless of age, size, stage of development, or dependency on another human being.<\/p>\n

The court also ignored legal jurisprudence and\u00a0historical<\/a>\u00a0context regarding the Fourteenth Amendment. State laws prohibited abortion prior to the Fourteenth Amendment\u2019s adoption in 1868\u2014contrary to Blackmun\u2019s\u00a0demonstrably false<\/a>\u00a0claims.<\/p>\n

Constitutional scholar and Yale law professor John Hart Ely wrote<\/a>:<\/p>\n

What is frightening about\u00a0Roe\u00a0is that this super-protected right is not inferable from the language of the Constitution, the framers\u2019 thinking respecting the specific problem in issue, any general value derivable from the provisions they included, or the nation\u2019s governmental structure. It is bad because it is bad constitutional law, or rather because it is\u00a0not\u00a0constitutional law and gives almost no sense of an obligation to try to be.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

The court also created another precedent by striking down state laws as illegal, which had existed in all 50 states for roughly 100 years. These state laws were enacted democratically\u2013 decided by voters either through ballot initiatives or elected state legislatures. The court overruled the rightful authority of the people in each of these states\u2014and the other two branches of government did nothing in response.<\/p>\n

Against the will of the people, and in defiance of the Constitution, the court created<\/a> policy\u00a0based not on the Constitution.<\/p>\n

Yet, the Supreme Court is not the ultimate legal authority in America. The court does not have the final word on legal matters: American citizens do. The Founders created separation of powers for a reason: Congress can overrule the Supreme Court as well as the President. States can overrule Congress. Congress and state legislatures determine policy as elected branches of government\u2014elected by the people. And the people (in 1973 and 2015) overwhelmingly\u00a0support<\/a>\u00a0significant restrictions on abortion.<\/p>\n

In so doing, the Court\u00a0legalized the leading cause of murder and human death in America.\u00a0Since 1973, more than<\/a> 56 million\u00a0human beings have been \u201clegally\u201d killed.<\/p>\n

The Court in\u00a0Roe<\/em>, usurped the authority of the people and made murder, illegal according to the Constitution, legal.\u00a0The Court not only broke the law but legalized others breaking it as well.<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

On Jan. 22, 1973, the U.S. Supreme Court in\u00a0Roe v. Wade\u00a0and\u00a0Doe v. Bolton\u00a0legalized the procedure of killing a pre-born child in the womb (abortion) or any reason before \u201cfetal viability,\u201d which it\u00a0loosely defined. The court stipulated that abortion must be permitted for \u201chealth reasons\u201d of the woman\u2014up until birth. Yet its broad definition of \u201chealth […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1910,"featured_media":3513,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[970],"tags":[300,742,743,56,745,746,750,751,562],"class_list":["post-413","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-politics","tag-abortion","tag-doe-v-bolton","tag-due-process-clause","tag-fourteenth-amendment","tag-justice-harry-blackmun","tag-justice-william-rehnquist","tag-roe-v-wade","tag-separation-of-powers","tag-womens-rights"],"yoast_head":"\nScholars Argue Roe v. Wade is Actually Un-Constitutional<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"On Jan. 22, 1973, the U.S. Supreme Court in\u00a0Roe v. Wade\u00a0and\u00a0Doe v. 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