By Rob Meyne
- June 30, 2023
- 5-min read
Abortion – Part 1
Much has been written about the consequences of the Dobbs decision. As you know, SCOTUS ruled that there was no constitutional right to abortion. It did not make it illegal. It recognizes abortion law is up to each state.
That, of course, is exactly what our founding fathers had in mind. They saw states as essential laboratories for considering and debating public policy. Our founders knew that law may be different from state to state. They were fine with that, even happy about it.
Our legal landscape in the aftermath of Dobbs is inconsistent and confusing from state to state. That is ok. It does not mean Dobbs was a bad decision or that we somehow have a crisis at hand. When we have different policies in different states, it is not a bug in the system; it is a feature of it. That is not in itself a problem.
The effect this ruling has had on some women is explored in an article from Vice, here. It is an interesting read. Even if you don’t agree that the “problems” created by Dobbs should make us question the decision, it is still important to understand how people with opinions different from your own came to their conclusions. That is why we read pieces every day written by people with whom we are likely to disagree.
Remember what the great Hugh Hewitt likes to say. He prefers clarity to agreement. Or as Stephen Covey says, paraphrasing, seek first to understand, then to be understood.
If the Vice piece isn’t persuasive, it is at least interesting, tugs at heartstrings, and shows how a lot of pro-abortion people view the SCOTUS ruling.
No doubt, there are troubling aspects of post-Roe America. It causes, for some people, stress, pain, and heartache, and makes getting an abortion more difficult. Well, as they say… “Duh!” Of course, it does.
States that have passed laws prohibiting or regulating abortion make it harder to get one. That. .. Is… The… Point…
Laws that regulate the purchase of pharmaceuticals, the practice of medicine, carrying firearms, or driving at high speeds are also designed to make those things more difficult.
As is the case with new laws, it isn’t a perfect situation. We often don’t understand all the ramifications of laws until they are implemented. This is a lesson we learned years ago when working in the Indiana House of Representatives. Most of the legislation, in any given session, involves attempts to correct, improve, and revise existing law. Most bills don’t propose new laws. The new state laws on abortion will likely be modified and improved over time. That is a good thing.
Having fewer abortions is a huge improvement in the minds of millions. Whatever troubles exist in the meantime should be addressed and, where needed, the laws revised and clarified.
Notably, research shows the total of abortions in the U. S. is down, as you would expect, but not anywhere near as dramatically as pro-abortion forces say. One study, here, puts the number of abortions as about 25,000 fewer in the nine months since Dobbs than in the year before. The total number of abortions in America, annually, remains well over a million. There were more than sixty million babies killed in America post-Roe. So, the direction is, in the opinion of most conservatives, the right one, but Dobbs has hardly wiped the out.
Of course, one could argue – and we will – that even a single baby saved is a good thing.
Still, the left depicts post-Dobbs America as a place where women are locked up, forbidden to cross state lines, and forced to wear outfits straight out of the Handmaid’s Tale. Nonsense.
In Nevada in 2022, Democratic Party television ads showed women being sent to jail because they had abortions. That entire viewpoint, and it is used by leftists nationwide, is a lie. No state laws provide that a woman will go to jail for getting an abortion from a doctor in her home state. None. In addition, no states allow the prosecution of women who come from out of state to get an abortion. None. Yet pro-abortion forces say it all the time.
Importantly, no new state laws are intended to prevent the care of women whose baby is dead or otherwise unviable. You hear horror stories of women who must carry a dead fetus for weeks because some doctor is afraid that he’ll be charged with performing an abortion. If such incidents occur, they are regrettable, but they are the result of a misunderstanding of the law, not application of it.
If a baby in a woman’s womb is dead, abortion laws do not prevent it from being removed. Period. Abortion involves the killing of a living pre-born person, not the removal of one that is dead.
There is no doubt there has been some confusion and mistakes made in the wake of new state laws. This is an expected result of a major change in national law. A lot of things need to be clarified, streamlined, or modified, and they will be. It won’t happen overnight, but states are already taking action to modify new abortion laws.
The bottom line on abortion is, and always has been, a question of how much does our society value life? How much do you value life? If you place serious value on human life, there is no chance you can honestly and logically justify abortion.
More to come in Part 2.
