37 years ago today, the supreme court usurped its authority. Its decision on the Roe v. Wade case effectively removed the prerogative of the American people to decide the abortion issue for themselves. This opening of the proverbial “pandora’s box” created a legacy of legislating from the bench that haunts this nation still.
Recently Clarke Forsythe, a bioethics specialist and public policy strategist for Americans United for Life, sat down with uber-blogger Justin Taylor for an interview about the Roe v. Wade decision. Taylor asked Forsythe the million-dollar question of why should roe v. wade overturned. Here is Mr. Forsythe’s response:
“It authorizes the homicide of the unborn child as national policy, a national “right.” It means abortion on demand nationwide as a practical matter, and it is an unjust, unconstitutional usurpation of the people’s right of self-government to decide the abortion issue, as the people decide other controversial issues, through the normal processes of representative government. By contrast, there is no “Roe” on other controversial bioethical issues—like human cloning, stem cell research, or assisted suicide. The Court has not taken them away from the American people; we decide these issues through the public officials we elect. In addition to the questions of moral principle and constitutional authority, there is the question of governmental competence: the Court has demonstrated through its incompetence over the past 37 years that the American people can better decide the abortion issue than the Court. And for women’s health, the Court created a public health vacuum—meaning that women are not informed of the medical risks, among other things, and abortion clinics are little regulated. At the very least, that vacuum should be filled by regulations enforced by local public health officials.”
There are many gems in this interview and I strongly urge you to go and read it. Setting the moral question aside, Roe v. Wade is bad law and should be overturned. The constitution was written to empower the people to decide such complex moral issues not an appointed judge. May God speed the day when we the people have our say and abortion is relegated to an extreme and unusual category of medical practice.
HT: Justin Taylor
