Roe v. Wade, Part III

The Most Poisonous Pollutant

Forty years have passed since the calamitous Roe v. Wade decision by the Supreme Court of the United States.  Looking back, the reasoning behind the decision shows all the hallmarks of a bunch of Unbelievers scratching around for a pretext to rationalise what they really wanted to have transpire--abortion on demand, the crowning glory of a culture of death.

In order to permit the unborn child to live, he or she must have "the capability of meaningful life" said the justices.  Since the unborn child could not speak for himself or herself, and since mother was speaking against it, seeking the baby's death, clearly the capability of a meaningful life was severely diminished.  Inability to communicate or to have your nearest and dearest deny your continuation implies a severe diminution of meaningful existence, after all. 

But the "value" which persuaded the court most of all and which proved to be decisive was the "right to privacy".  Harold O J Brown commented:

The Court admitted that it did not know where the right to privacy may be found, but it was sure that it is strong enough to take precedence over any possible right to life of the unborn.  The right to privacy is rather limited in other respects, as we are all reminded around April 15 (tax time) every year; it does not extend to our financial activities but it does seem to extend to this activity--the giving and taking of life. 

Incidentally, the logic used here was extremely far-fetched and went back to a 19th century decision, Union Pacific v. Bigelow, where there was a body search of an individual who was thought to be carrying a bomb.  He was found not to be carrying a bomb, and the railroad had to pay damages.  This precedent established the right to privacy.  It is certainly a very weak parallel to the right of a woman to destroy her unborn child.  [Harold O J Brown, The Christian Case Against Abortion: Thou Shalt Not Kill, ed. by Richard L. Ganz (New Rochelle: Arlington House Publishers, 1978), p.121.]

Upon this piece of sophistry and artifice turns the subsequent killing of more than forty million not-to-be-born children in the United States. Brown explains just how artificial and stretched the Court's long bow was:

What should be noted here is that a "formal" [i.e. procedural] right, the right to privacy, has taken precedence over a fundamental right, the right to life.  A formal right, the right to privacy, one that is not even clearly established in the Constitution, is thus allowed to abolish the most fundamental right of all--the right to live. [Ibid.]

The words of our Lord about straining the gnat and swallowing the camel come to mind--which was the central indictment of Israel and Jerusalem which brought His final judgment upon that city (Matthew 23).  "Woe to you scribes and Pharisees of the law.  You have exalted the right to privacy to justify murdering forty million innocent children. . . . Your house is left to you, desolate."

When Israel was redeemed from Egypt and brought into a land flowing with milk and honey, before two centuries passed it had begun to turn back to the idolatry and practices which had brought the judgement of God down upon the inhabitants of the land in the first place.  "We prefer the idol gods to the God of our father, Abraham", was Israel's new confession of faith.

For the children of Israel and the children of Judah have done nothing but evil in my sight from their youth. The children of Israel have done nothing but provoke me to anger by the work of their hands, declares the Lord. This city has aroused my anger and wrath, from the day it was built to this day, so that I will remove it from my sight because of all the evil of the children of Israel and the children of Judah that they did to provoke me to anger—their kings and their officials, their priests and their prophets, the men of Judah and the inhabitants of Jerusalem.  

They have turned to me their back and not their face. And though I have taught them persistently, they have not listened to receive instruction. They set up their abominations in the house that is called by my name, to defile it. They built the high places of Baal in the Valley of the Son of Hinnom, to offer up their sons and daughters to Molech, though I did not command them, nor did it enter into my mind, that they should do this abomination, to cause Judah to sin. (Jeremiah 32.)

Amongst the terrible sins of Israel was its return to the pagan practice of child sacrifice.  We have done the same.

In God's world, truth wills out.  And so, Justice Blackmun, writing the majority opinion to legalize abortion in the United States, wrote these words to justify the abhorrence: "Ancient religion did not bar abortion".  Indeed it did not.  To adopt abortion and practise it as a human right is to return to the demons, to the idolatry of the pagans--and to their fate.