How To Make The Case For Abortion

I have read and heard lots of prolix discussion over the past month regarding the legal basis for a right to abortion. Some opine that Roe v. Wade would not now be history if the case had been argued originally on the basis of equal protection of the laws [Fourteenth Amendment] rather than the seemingly fuzzier issues of privacy.

Well, balderdash, say I. (I also say "bullshit," but the other word sounds much more legalistic, doesn't it?)  Let's be more fundamental than that! Consider a much more "original" clause of the Constitution, i.e. the First Amendment. I quote the relevant portion: "Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof;".  

Nearly everyone's view on the issue of abortion is born out of a religious conviction or dogma. This is an issue of religion, no bones about it.

So where do the fuzzy-minded fetus-protecting reactionary Supremes get off, reading into the Constitution a religious dogma that is to be foisted on all citizens? The simple wording of the Constitution leaves certain things unsaid but a high legal mind ought to be able to figure out that the First Amendment cannot protect one religion, or religious view, by making it the law of the land. That effectively establishes a religion. 

Despite my strong conviction that the court's decision in Dobbs v. Jackson Women's Health Organization is in direct conflict with the Constitution, I might nevertheless have assumed that the court's error could never be corrected at this stage. But I'm very glad to see, in this week's New Yorker, that a synagogue in Florida has filed suit against that state's anti-abortion law. Jewish law, it seems, stipulates that life begins at birth, and requires the mother to abort a pregnancy if there is a risk to her health or emotional well-being. The suit therefore argues that Florida law infringes on Jewish free exercise of religion.

BOOM.

By the way, it appears to me that the Ninth Amendment is relevant to the reasoning the conservative majority of the court used in Dobbs. Justices might want to review it. It reads: "The enumeration in the Constitution of certain rights shall not be construed to deny or disparage others retained by the people." Really now, have they ever read this document we call the Constitution? Doesn't the Ninth suggest that regardless of state laws, a right of abortion, having existed as law for decades, still exists? The weak arguments underlying Dobbs sadly only serves to demonstrate that the decision was politically motivated. 

 

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Comments

[PiedType]

My blood pressure is going up just from reading about this again. As you point out, there are several different protections for the right to abortion, depending on how one wants to approach it. But SCOTUS opted to knock it down for religious reasons. (Doesn't matter how they worded it. We all know what they were thinking.) Consequently I'm DELIGHTED to read that Florida's law is being challenged by a religious group on a religious basis. Fight religion with religion, if that's the way the court wants to play. Thanks for posting this. It gives me a wee bit of hope.