President Bush says the United States is not ready for a total abortion ban.
“I don’t think the culture has changed to the extent that the American people or the Congress would totally ban abortions,” he explained.
What Bush really means is the political culture in Washington hasn’t changed.
Real leadership means doing what’s right even at the risk of political rejection. That’s not Bush. That’s not the U.S. Congress. In fact, there’s precious little real leadership like that anywhere in the United States today.
When Bush says the culture isn’t ready to ban abortions, he’s making excuses for himself.
The culture never was ready to eliminate all laws restricting abortion, but that didn’t stop the Supreme Court from forcing that cultural and social change down the throats of an unwilling public.
Slowly but surely the culture has been pushed by the courts, by the media, by academia and by other cultural institutions to accept abortion on demand. Even so, 30 years after Roe v. Wade, the nation is basically still split evenly on the issue.
But morality is not subject to polls. Morality is not dictated by elections. Right and wrong are eternal, immutable truths.
That’s why it is impossible that there ever was a constitutional right to an abortion in this country.
No matter what the U.S. Supreme Court decided in Roe v. Wade in 1973 or in subsequent rulings, abortion is illegal and unconstitutional, and I will prove it to you in this column.
To understand why, you must begin by doing something few Americans bother with anymore – reading the preamble to the U.S. Constitution.
“We the people of the United States, in order to form a more perfect union, establish justice, insure domestic tranquility, provide for the common defense, promote the general welfare, and secure the blessings of liberty to ourselves and our posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America,” it says.
Important words all. But I want you to focus right now on those to whom this document applies. Who are the subjects and beneficiaries of the Constitution, as stated clearly in the preamble?
The answer? “… to ourselves and our posterity. …”
The word “ourselves” in this context refers to those men who wrote it – and to their generation of Americans.
“Posterity,” which literally means “descendants” or all succeeding generations, refers, in this context, to all those Americans yet unborn.
Is your great, great, great, great granddaughter your posterity? Absolutely. Is she born yet? Absolutely not. Does the fact that she is not yet born make her any less your posterity? No.
Now, specifically what rights are ascribed by the Constitution to ourselves and our posterity?
“Amendment V: No person shall be held to answer for a capital, or otherwise infamous crime, unless on a presentment or indictment of a grand jury, except in cases arising in the land or naval forces, or in the militia, when in actual service in time of war or public danger; nor shall any person be subject for the same offense to be twice put in jeopardy of life or limb; nor shall be compelled in any criminal case to be a witness against himself, nor be deprived of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law; nor shall private property be taken for public use, without just compensation.”
Clearly, the Fifth Amendment establishes that our posterity – those yet unborn – shall not be deprived of life without due process. Bingo!
This same principle was contained in the Declaration of Independence:
“We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty, and the pursuit of Happiness.”
Life is an unalienable right, which means man can’t take it away through laws or through Supreme Court decisions. And just so there is no confusion about this being a limitation only on the federal government, check out the 14th Amendment:
“Section 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.”
Tell me, where is due process for those unborn children sentenced to death while still in the womb?
Some abortion advocates have tried to suggest that Roe v. Wade – an arbitrary and capricious attempt by the Supreme Court to exceed its constitutional limitations and legislate – is itself the due process for unborn babies.
Once again, however, the Constitution trumps that poor excuse for an argument.
“Amendment VI: In all criminal prosecutions, the accused shall enjoy the right to a speedy and public trial, by an impartial jury of the state and district wherein the crime shall have been committed; which district shall have been previously ascertained by law, and to be informed of the nature and cause of the accusation; to be confronted with the witnesses against him; to have compulsory process for obtaining witnesses in his favor, and to have the assistance of counsel for his defense.”
Roe v. Wade is, thus, a sham – a house of cards. It was an artificial attempt to make abortion a right by citing a “right of privacy” that is itself nowhere to be found in the Constitution. Roe v. Wade created rights where none existed and abrogated those that were enshrined as unalienable.
I rest my case.
But I will not rest entirely until this nation is awakened to abortion as both a national tragedy as well as a constitutional threat to all of our God-given rights – as well as an endangerment to the lives and liberties of our posterity.
