Roe v. Wade: Further Proof (Part II)

I have read several books which claim to be “neutral” on the issue of abortion and that is far from the truth. In “Roe v. Wade: The Abortion Rights Controversy in American History” by N.E.H. Hull and Peter Charles Hofer they discuss one tragic (illegal) abortion story after another leading to the death of the mother. It is obvious the authors favored “therapeutic” abortion legislation that would give doctors more leeway to perform (legal) abortion under a wide range of conditions other than when the mother’s life being in danger. Some conditions include a poor mental state or the chance of deformed child. We are led to believe from Hull and Hofer that a women’s health suffered greatly due to abortion laws. It is odd though when Hull and Hofer point out states which implemented “therapeutic” abortion laws saw only a “slight uptick” in abortion rates. Hull and Hofer made this claim to show that implementing “therapeutic” abortion laws across the country would not have affected abortion rates too much. However, what this information tells me is that the tragic stories told in this book are rare and not nearly as widespread as they indicate. Besides, we all know that women’s health in America is much better than men’s health. How do we know this? Easy, because women live on average nearly five more years than men. And women have had a higher life expectancy than men throughout American history. Feminist would lead you to believe there is a war on women and women’s health. This is far from the truth. A far greater amount of money is spent on women’s health than men’s health in both government and charitable contributions. Consider, for example, how much money is raised for breast cancer, when far more men die from cancer than women. There is no war on women’s health when, in fact, there is a “non-equal” skew that greatly favors women. But feminist expect “non-equal protection” over the issue of healthcare and not equal protection.

It is a cop out for the pro-abortion movement to say a pregnancy places a “dispropriate burden” on women and it can be a “stigma” for unmarried women and it is a “disruption” of their lives (jobs etc.). Other pro-abortion arguments include pregnancy discriminates against the poor and it is safer than childbirth. Another extreme pro-abortion argument compares pregnancy to slavery saying it makes women slaves to their bodies. In fact, the Court’s reasoning in abortion cases seems to give credence to all these extreme arguments through reasonable statements such as: people have the right to be free from bodily restraint; people have the liberty to make decisions to marry and to have children; and people have the liberty to express one’s personality. For these reasons, the Court held the decision for an abortion was “the women’s and hers alone” and the spouse and even doctors had no say in the matter. Abortion, to feminists, was about freeing women from the oppression of pregnancy, something that no man has to go through. But in the early 1970s (time of the Roe v. Wade decision) there were things that only men went through that were much more troubling then an “unwanted” pregnancy. For instance, only young men were drafted into the military to fight in Vietnam. This could also be seen as slavery and a violation of the Thirteenth Amendment. This too could also be seen as a “dispropriate burden” and a “disruption” on their lives. The option for men drafted into the military was to fight or go to jail. Isn’t this a violation of their liberty to be free from restraint or the right to make family decisions or to express their personalities? Life in the military was much more dangerous than having an abortion or giving birth combined. Compared to the military argument, women have no argument. In fact, the women’s argument of comparing childrearing to an illness or disease once again illustrates the selfishness of the feminist and abortion movement.

Some believe Justice Thurgood Marshall’s questioning of the attorney defending (Floyd) the Texas statute in Roe was convincing because it poked holes in the Texas argument that life started at conception. Marshall asked if Texas felt that life started at conception then why didn’t the statute punish abortionists as murderers (the penalty was much less severe than murder). Marshall also asked why the Texas statute didn’t, as well as other state statutes, punish the mother for having an abortion. The Texas and most state statutes only sought to punish the abortionists. Floyd botched the answer which could have been simple. With regard to no penalty on the mother most criminal laws focus on the supply side of crimes and for good reason. Consider how laws are much harsher for drug dealers over drug users. This is obvious for a few reasons. First, drug dealers are making money off the criminal activity and preying on the weakness of addicted persons. Second, there are fewer suppliers to apprehend than users. Finally, by cutting off the supply of drugs then the demand is diminished. In many ways, we see kids dying from opioid addiction as victims and the same can be said of pregnant women. Abortion laws are no different, they focus on stopping the supply side of the activity. As for not punishing the abortionist proportionally to a murderer, this too is an easy question to answer. A murderer picks and targets its victims in a premeditated fashion. A drunk driver is usually convicted of manslaughter instead of murder because they did not intend to kill anyone. And abortionist does not seek out pregnant women (if they did, that may be murder). Pregnant women seek out abortionists and that is why penalties are less severe. There was no excuse for not being able to answer these questions correctly because this case was argued before the Court twice.

Another concern for the Justices in Roe is that anti-abortion laws drove desperate women into having dangerous illegal abortions. This too is a weak argument to legalize the activity. First, Hull and Hofer say that states with broader abortion laws did not see a big increase in abortions meaning these circumstances were rare. Secondly, the same analogy can be made for other crimes, such as drug laws. Don’t drug laws force users (victims) to buy from dangerous dealers or drug lords? Don’t prostitution laws force women to find protection from dangerous criminals? Don’t immigration laws force immigrants to find protection from dangerous criminals to earn passage to the United States. It is the nature of crime, it is dangerous. And since abortion at the time was a crime, it was a dangerous activity.

The Court invented a trimester system to compromise over the issue of abortion in Roe v. Wade (it is not in the Constitution; the Court was essentially legislating). In the first trimester, a woman could essentially get an abortion on demand. During the third trimester of a pregnancy the state could regulate abortion as it sees fit to protect the life of the fetus. The second trimester of the pregnancy could be regulated as the state sees fit (depending on when the state determines a fetus becomes viable): Before viability abortion was acceptable and after viability regulation and restrictions could be put in place. I have tried but cannot name a single Fundamental Right or action that is legal in its infancy but illegal in maturity. What can be treated as both cancer and a precious blessing? A fetus! It makes little sense that a common group of cells can act in two mutually exclusive ways that are polar opposites from each other. In its infancy mass genocide is welcome and in maturity nurturing and love are required.