You hear it all over the news, in your classrooms, in your chapels, on your way to campus, and maybe at work. What is this "it?" "IT" is the battle that has been raging since the 1973 ruling in the U.S. Supreme Court case, "ROE vs WADE." The trial legalized ABORTION across all borders in the United States.
Let me take you back in time and tell you a story that you may have never heard. The story of a woman who changed our country, and started a new, silent Holocaust...
It's 1947... Norma McCorvey is born into a home filled with emotional and physical abuse. Raised by her alcoholic mother, Norma had her own problems with drugs and alcohol, and dropped out of high school by ninth grade. At age 16 she married a man that beat her, and was raped at some point in her teen-aged years. By the age of 21, Norma had given birth to two children- one of which lived with Norma's mother, and the other lived with the birth father. But then Norma found herself pregnant, yet again. (1)
She sought to have an abortion, but at that time in Texas only rape/incest victims were permitted to have an abortion. (1) McCorvey was referred to Sarah Weddington, who, at that time in 1971 was doing research on and providing information about abortion, along with other graduate students at the University of Texas. From there Weddington and fellow classmate, Linda Coffee, took McCorvey - dubbed Jane Roe to protect her privacy - and her story all the way to Capital Hill. Eventually Weddington won her case. She argued that it was unconstitutional for abortion to be illegal, that it was an invasion of privacy for the government to tell someone they cannot have an abortion. (She also argued many other point before successfully settling on the privacy theory). (2).
What's that? You didn't know that there was a privacy clause in the Constitution? Well, you were right. The idea that privacy is a constitutional right is a theory introduced by Weddington. This theory is based on the overarching of several amendments including, but not limited to, the 14th and 9th amendments. What exactly do these amendments say? I'm glad you asked.
I will just display the 'Abortion Clause' from the 14th Amendment (commonly referred to as the "Federal Abortion Amendment"). What is the Abortion Clause?? Well, let me explain it before you read it. The Abortion Clause is a clause within the 14th Amendment that supposedly supports the idea that the constitution supports abortion. I'll let you decide for yourself. Here it goes...
Let me take you back in time and tell you a story that you may have never heard. The story of a woman who changed our country, and started a new, silent Holocaust...
It's 1947... Norma McCorvey is born into a home filled with emotional and physical abuse. Raised by her alcoholic mother, Norma had her own problems with drugs and alcohol, and dropped out of high school by ninth grade. At age 16 she married a man that beat her, and was raped at some point in her teen-aged years. By the age of 21, Norma had given birth to two children- one of which lived with Norma's mother, and the other lived with the birth father. But then Norma found herself pregnant, yet again. (1)
She sought to have an abortion, but at that time in Texas only rape/incest victims were permitted to have an abortion. (1) McCorvey was referred to Sarah Weddington, who, at that time in 1971 was doing research on and providing information about abortion, along with other graduate students at the University of Texas. From there Weddington and fellow classmate, Linda Coffee, took McCorvey - dubbed Jane Roe to protect her privacy - and her story all the way to Capital Hill. Eventually Weddington won her case. She argued that it was unconstitutional for abortion to be illegal, that it was an invasion of privacy for the government to tell someone they cannot have an abortion. (She also argued many other point before successfully settling on the privacy theory). (2).
What's that? You didn't know that there was a privacy clause in the Constitution? Well, you were right. The idea that privacy is a constitutional right is a theory introduced by Weddington. This theory is based on the overarching of several amendments including, but not limited to, the 14th and 9th amendments. What exactly do these amendments say? I'm glad you asked.
I will just display the 'Abortion Clause' from the 14th Amendment (commonly referred to as the "Federal Abortion Amendment"). What is the Abortion Clause?? Well, let me explain it before you read it. The Abortion Clause is a clause within the 14th Amendment that supposedly supports the idea that the constitution supports abortion. I'll let you decide for yourself. Here it goes...
“…nor shall any state
deprive any person of
life, liberty, or property,
without due process of law.”
According to Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O'Connor in 1992, you can substitute the word "abortion" for the word "liberty" if you wanted to. (3). So, I'm thinking, "That's great!! I can just change around words in amendments and I can get away with murder."
I.e...
The 5th Amendment is, according to Findlaw.com,
No person shall be held to answer for a capital, or otherwise infamous crime,
unless on a presentment or indictment of a Grand Jury...
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.
But if i take O'Connor's approach... Substitute "Even if" for "unless." Now the 14th AND 5th Amendment can allow you to murder. Whoops, I was trying to be unbiased in this first entry...
ANYWAYS... that is where it all started... The End, (or is it just the beginning?)
(1) Wood, D. (June 18, 2003). Who is ‘Jane Roe?’ CNN Online. Retrieved October 13, 2010 from http://articles.cnn.com/keyword/norma-mccorvey
(2) Reaves, J. (January 16, 2003). Interview: Sarah Weddington. Time Online. Retrieved January 25, 2011 from http://www.time.com/time/nation/article/0,8599,409103,00.html
(3)žNew, D. The Federal Abortion Amendment of 1868. The Covenant News. Retrieved October 18, 2010 from http://www.covenantnews.com/davidnew050209.htm
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