A Somber Anniversary

Forty-eight years ago today the U.S. Supreme Court, in its landmark Roe v. Wade decision, ruled that the Constitution estab­lishes a woman’s right to choose to have an abortion.

The bizarre line of reasoning in this case appealed to a right of privacy supposedly supported by the 14th Amend­ment.  Justice Rehnquist objected to the Court’s strained argument:  “I have difficulty in concluding, as the Court does, that the right of ‘privacy’ is involved in this case….  Nor is the ‘privacy’ that the Court finds here even a distant relative of the freedom from searches and seizures protected by the Fourth Amendment…”

But be that as it may, Roe v. Wade has stood for nearly fifty years, and since 1973 some sixty million abortions have been performed in this country.  That’s like wiping out the populations of New York, Illinois, Ohio, and Pennsylvania.  Sobering facts.

A contentious yet crucial issue in the abortion dispute is the nature of the unborn:  how should we think about the human fetus?  The implication of the Roe ruling and the ideology that undergirds it is to deny that the fetus has the status of a human being, and thus it may be considered dispensable:  the unborn are not entitled to equal justice under American law.

It seems, however, that the burden of proof has landed in the wrong place in this debate.  In fact, it is advocates of abortion who should be expected to provide evidence that the unborn are not human beings.  After all, since the fetus is formed through the process of human reproduc­tion, and since it has human DNA and human organs, and since all the vital human functions are active from the early weeks in the womb (such that it can feel and move and react to stimuli), why should we believe it is not a human being?  What compelling evidence is there that these little ones are not real people?  And apart from such evidence, justice would mean protecting them from deadly danger.  In fact, even if one were less than fully certain about the genuine humanity of the unborn, surely we would want to lean in the direction of their safety.  So back to the question:  where is the evidence that the unborn are not people?

I put this question to President Biden and Vice President Harris, and to PA Governor Wolf, as I have to numerous elected leaders in the past:  can you point the American people to the evidence?  Are you able to articulate a persuasive case why the human fetus should not be considered a human being?  Can you explain why the unborn should not be entitled to the right to “life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness”?

*****

For you formed my inward parts; you knitted me together in my mother's womb.  I praise you, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made.  Wonderful are your works; my soul knows it very well.  My frame was not hidden from you, when I was being made in secret, intricately woven in the depths of the earth.  Your eyes saw my unformed substance; in your book were written, every one of them, the days that were formed for me, when as yet there was none of them.

(Psalm 139:13-16)