Today is the anniversary of both the Roe v. Wade and Doe v. Bolton US Supreme Court decisions.  As of today there are about 40 million Americans who are not alive because they were allowed to be aborted by these two court decisions.

There are many misconceptions about the two court decisions, but here is what is true:

• Roe v. Wade and Doe v. Bolton do not allow for the citizens of the United States to make laws that explicitely restrict abortions, even late term abortions.
• Roe v. Wade did not make abortions legal.  In fact numerous states had already made abortion legal prior to Roe v. Wade.  Roe v. Wade made it illegal for any governing body in the US to limit abortions.
• The overturning of Roe v. Wade would not make abortion illegal.  What it would do is allow for states to make that decision.  Some would obviously make abortion illegal, others would obviously not.  Many would limit abortion to the first trimester.
• As it stands, it is illegal for any state to make a law limiting abortion for any reason at any point during the pregnancy (as long as the mother is an adult).  Children who are 30 minutes from being delivered in the hospital can legally be killed inside the womb because the mother decides it wouldn’t be in her best interest to have a child.

That’s the current legal situation and it is a true injustice that it remains that way.  Too many beautiful children are being denied their right to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.  Furthermore, there is a reason that just about every group should worry about the continued legalization of abortion:

• Women’s rights groups should fear that what has happened in China and India will eventually make its way to the US.  Abortion based on sex selection is a growing International problem.
• Economists should fear that the same population colapse that is on the verge of crippling the economies of Europe and the former Soviet Union will drag the entire world into the worst depression in world history.
• Disabled rights groups should fear that children are being aborted because of their disabilities.  As our ability to test for disabilities grows this will only get worse.
• Women’s right groups should further fear that abortion allows for the futher objectification of women as sex objects who can be pressured into abortions.
• Senior citizen right groups should fear that if we are not willing to protect the young, why will we be willing to protect the elderly.
• Supporters of Eugenics should fear that it is not the poor and uneducated who get abortions but the well-educated and wealthy.
• Gay rights groups should fear that if a “gay gene” is ever found, most every gay child will be aborted.
• Political parties should fear that by supporting abortion their supporters will be aborting their future voting block.
• Death penalty opponents should fear that if we aren’t willing to protect the lives of the innocent, why would we protect the lives of the guilty.
• Women’s health groups should fear that the abortions will be hurting the future fertility of women and possibly increase the likelihood of breast cancer.

In truth, every American should fear what abortion does to our society.  In the end, abortion is a lack of respect for unborn life.  When we stop respecting one form of life, it is far easier to stop respecting other aspects of life.  We must choose life.

Today I pray for all those who have suffered from an abortion and for all of those who will be faced with the decision to abort.  May God’s grace lead and guide our nation to end this injustice.

This entry was posted on Monday, January 22nd, 2007 at 6:05 pm and is filed under Catholicism, Catholicism - Morals. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.