38 Years Ago

38 years ago, just over 3 years before my own birth, because of a woman Norma L. McCorvey, aka Jane Roe, and her legal team, The US Supreme Court decided that a womans right to have an abortion falls under the Fourteenth Amendment to the US Constitution.

1. All persons born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States and of the State wherein they reside. No State shall make or enforce any law which shall abridge the privileges or immunities of citizens of the United States; nor shall any State deprive any person of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law; nor deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws.     

And the 9th Amendment

The enumeration in the Constitution, of certain rights, shall not be construed to deny or disparage others retained by the people.

They decided that there would be no restriction in the earlier months, with restriction in the latter months. This was based on their definition if viability of the fetus. Before Roe V. Wade, abortion was outlawed in most states and allowed, but restricted in others. This is allowed by the 10th Amendment. The States have a right to write such laws.

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.

But the Supreme Court did not see it that way.
What it boiled down to is the US Supreme court felt it was a violation of a womans privacy and that the laws regarding an abortion were not "equal rights". The state of Texas at the time of Roe v. Wade, allowed for abortion in cases of rape and incest, but not for any other cause. Ms. McCorvey was pregnant with an unwanted child and desperately sough out an abortion, only to be denied. Her daughter was in fact born and given up for adoption.

In 1995 Norma L. McCorvey became a member of the pro life movement.

Abortion is argued in two ways. As a rights issue and as a moral issue. For me they are the same. As a woman who has had 12 fetus', 3 who did not remain viable and died in the early weeks, grow in my womb, I can testify to you that this is life. This is a life that is not only part of me, but part of another human who also has rights. When we talk about individual rights, abortion involves 3 people- the mother, the father and the child. How can we declare Roe v. Wade is about the 9th amendment when it clearly effects the rights of several people. In every case it violates the rights of the unborn.

I know abortions are performed for many reasons. The most compelling is rape and birth defects. While I have not personally experienced either, I know in my heart those lives are no less important than any others. I don't see how a child who is conceived of rape, or one that may not even live, is better off dying at the hands of its own mother. Nothing, nothing, could ever convince me to take my child's life. NOTHING.

Eight weeks after conception — the baby is able to feel pain and may be starting to suck her thumb. Most abortions occur at this time.

I also know that 38 years ago, viability wasn't what it is today. Babies are surviving younger and younger outside the womb. How does that effect the decisions. Roe v. Wade did address late term abortions. The slider on "late term" has been creeping closer to time of conception since the passing of this decision.

If abortion is about a womans right, and her choice to her body, how can we pass laws saying that abortion at  8 weeks is acceptable but at 38 weeks it is not. At what point does she lose her choice over her body? Who decided this? Who do we trust with the power to decide which lives are worthy of protection and which ones are not. Where does this language take us? How does this effect other issues such as assisted suicide where an adult decides on their own accord they no longer want to live. They want a doctor to end their life. Abortion doctors are protected by the Supreme Court and the Dr. Kevorkains go to jail.

And since we are discussing rights, without going too much off topic, I think its important to note other laws in effect. We currently have laws that tell us what drugs we can and cannot take, what foods we can and cannot eat. We are told what to read, what to watch. Our lives are micromanaged in every way possible, but when it comes to the unborn, and the decision to end their life, thats when choice kicks in?

20 weeks. 4.3% of abortions are performed at this age.  

When a child is conceived, they are given a life. Whether it was perfect or not thats what God gave them. He didn't do that so it could be extinguished before it was their time. I know without a doubt I would not make the decision to end it. I have made that decision before I even made the choice to have children, I made the choice that I would accept them unconditionally. If thats not a choice you can make, please reconsider your child rearing options before embarking in childrearing activities. 



*originally posted 1/22/2011