Joe Doakes from Como Park emails:

Roe v. Wade, 1973 the Supreme Court case which legalized abortion, was wrongly decided.  The Court failed to include a necessary party in the case – the unborn child – and that failure renders the decision unconstitutional and unjust.

The Fourth Amendment say no person shall be deprived of liberty or property without due process.  Due process consists of notice of the intended action and an opportunity to be heard by a neutral decider.  Originally binding only on the federal government, due process rights were incorporated against the states by the 14th Amendment.

In Roe, the court was asked to declare that the right of the mother to end her unborn child’s life was superior to the right of the government to save that child’s life.  The Supreme Court agreed.  No lawyer appeared to argue for the rights of the unborn child.  No Guardian Ad Litem was heard.  The Court did not decide where on that spectrum the rights of the unborn child would fall. The Court held the mother could deprive the child of life, at whim.

Without explicitly saying so, the Court decided the unborn child was not a necessary party to the case because the unborn child was not a ‘person’ in the eyes of the law; therefore, the unborn child had no rights which could have been affected by the outcome of the case.  Well, but what else could the Court have done?  Either a person has rights, or they don’t.

Not so.  A person convicted of a crime loses the right to liberty when confined in prison, but not the right to life which the Warden.  A person suffering from mental disability may lose the right to control her own money because the Conservator manages it for her, but she might retain the right to vote or get married.  A minor child lacks the legal capacity to enter into contracts but is entitled to life, liberty, support, protection, and education. The Court could have determined an unborn child was a ‘person’ with diminished rights like any of those other ‘persons.’

Instead, the Court determined an unborn child has the same legal status as a Negro slave in The Old South.  The slave’s owner can kill the slave at whim.  The mother of the unborn child can, too.

We abolished slavery because it was unjust.  We should abolish abortion-on-demand on the same basis.

Joe Doakes

It’ll bve interesting to see what cases come to the SCOTUS on the subject in the next decade or so.