Abortion Dilemma

            When the U.S. Supreme Court passed Roe v. Wade and made abortion on demand legal, they lit a fire until the right-to-life supporters. They also made a ruling that they had no right to decide. The U.S. Constitution outlines what the federal government can do, and the Bill of Rights lists the rights of Americans that the government cannot infringe. In order that there be no confusion, the Founders added Amendment 9 and Amendment 10.

            Amendment 9 states: “The enumeration in the Constitution, of certain rights, shall not be construed to deny or disparage others retained by the people.” This amendment says that there are other rights that might not listed, but they cannot be violated even though they are not listed.

            Amendment 10 states: “The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States respectively, or to the people.” This amendment basically means that any power not specifically given to the federal government remains with the people or the states.

            These two amendments taken together cause the conundrum with abortion. Abortion is not mentioned at all in the Constitution or in the Bill of Rights. Therefore, the federal government has no authority to rule on abortion. If there was a “right to abortion” or “right to kill my baby,” the authority to make laws concerning abortion would rest with the states. Since there is no right for a woman to kill her baby – or any other human being – there is no right to have an abortion.

            Various states have passed bills in case Roe v. Wade is ever overturned. New York State recently passed a law stating that a baby can be aborted anytime up until birth. Virginia passed – or at least considered – a law that would allow a baby that survived an abortion attempt to die. Other states have passed or considered similar laws.

            On the opposite end of the spectrum is Alabama where a bill was recently passed and signed into law making all abortion illegals and abortion doctors guilty of murder. Other states are considering/passing similar laws.

            The fact that states are passing laws that are totally opposed to each other means that the issue of abortion will sooner or later be back on the Supreme Court docket. In fact, the sponsor for the law in Alabama says that the law was written as it was to force the Supreme Court to take a case.

            William Sullivan posted an interesting article about the abortion dilemma. He quotes none other than Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg as saying, “Court ventured too far in the change it ordered and presented an incomplete justification for its action.” Any honest person who knows anything about the Constitution can see that Roe v. Wade is unconstitutional. Sullivan concludes his article with these paragraphs. 

In short, the Constitution gave us a formula to navigate this issue, and it is best handled state-to-state rather than being “irrevocably fixed” by the Supreme Court.  If the federal government is to allow or forbid abortion, it must be allowed to do so only by Constitutional Amendment.  Insofar as the states comprising these United States cannot agree to do one or the other at the Congressional level, that Amendment is not in the foreseeable future, and therefore, it is still best left to the states to decide.

Two things are certain.  First, the national debate over abortion will continue, whatever the result of the coming Supreme Court decision on any new abortion legislation like Alabama’s.  Secondly, what is best for every citizen of every state is not best decided by the nine judges of the Supreme Court, whoever they may be.  So, even though “we disagree” with the decision in Roe v. Wade, we must “do what we can” to have the Court overrule that terrible mistake that has left more 60 million legally killed unborn babies in its horrifying wake.

            Abortion is an issue that should be left to the states. Sullivan explains that the people in Alabama do not want a law like that of New York – and vice versa. Therefore, the only way for the people in both Alabama and New York to accept the issue is for each state to be allowed to make their own abortion laws. It is time to overturn Roe v. Wade and allow each state to do what is best for its own people.