FINALLY something new and interesting to write about: the rat in the Supreme Court leaking a draft decision regarding Roe v. Wade and Planned Parenthood v. Casey. Of course, abortion is a hot topic and will always be amongst us. Will the Supreme Court roll back Roe and Casey or are we simply getting hyped up for things to stay the same?
Let’s start off with what has changed so far: legally speaking, absolutely nothing. We now have a precedent for draft decisions being revealed to the public while a case is still pending, but that’s about it. As the case is still pending, no decision has been firmly made. This draft decision is the Court’s mode of politicking. There is still time for minds to change, votes to switch, and the potential for many different endings by the time this particular case is settled.
What does the draft say? In the 98 pages of legalese (which I’ll freely admit to not reading in its entirety—it’s kind of dense) Roe and Casey are discussed before mentioning the case itself (Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization). The main argument is that the power to regulate abortions is not a federal responsibility and that power should be given to the states for their own citizens to vote on. After this point, it gets tough to read, so my praise goes to anyone who finds themselves trucking through all 98 pages.
Focusing on the Constitutionality of abortion, and leaning on the 10th Amendment, I find myself in the camp that the Roe v. Wade decision was not made legally. I am in the camp of the 10th Amendment, reserving rights not stated in the Constitution to the States. The Court judges who made the Roe decision were leaning on a clause in the 14th Amendment, which I do not agree with. However, I’ll leave splitting these particular hairs to those more learned in the judicial arts than I am.
One point always brought up in defense of keeping abortion legal and fairly unrestricted is the health risks of the mother. No reasonable person wants to restrict the choice of the mother in these situations—not the Louisiana state law or even the Catholic Church (though any heretical statements are unintentional). When the life of the mother is at high risk, and waiting until delivery is not feasible, emergency procedures are allowed and surely encouraged. That being said, maternal mortality rates in the US in 2020 was 23.8 deaths per 100,000 live births. That’s a 0.000238% maternal mortality rate. Would abortions have lowered that number? I would say that if so, it would be a very negligible amount.
Other hot points of discussion in support of abortions are the cases of rape, incest, and similar. While these are horrible situations, they are also very infrequent occurrences in regards to that being a reason for seeking abortion. That is not to say that those victims should not be supported and cared for. Sources can be found at the end of this article.
Now for the low-hanging fruit: people who voice the concern of the bodily autonomy of the mother seem to always conveniently ignore the bodily autonomy of the child. In most cases, the child is the most defenseless person in these situations. Bodily autonomy as a reason to get a tattoo? Sure. Bodily autonomy as a reason to take away someone else’s? Not sure about that.
Regardless of where the Court goes with this Dobbs case, and what states will keep abortions legal or prohibit them, there is the broader concern that everyone on both sides of the fence need to bear in mind. Mothers who are faced with this decision should be supported as best as possible. Mothers who elect to abortion still have the dignity of human life. Surprise children also have the dignity of human life. Single mothers, fathers, children in poor living conditions all still have the dignity of life. As such, those of us who are able need to be charitable, kind, supportive, and try our best to see the good in each of these people in these situations.
Sources (and there are a good bit):
https://www.politico.com/news/2022/05/02/supreme-court-abortion-draft-opinion-00029473
https://bmcwomenshealth.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/1472-6874-13-29#Tab2
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5957082/
https://legis.la.gov/Legis/Law.aspx?d=97020
https://www.catholic.com/magazine/print-edition/abortion-and-double-effect
https://www.oyez.org/cases/1971/70-18
https://www.cdc.gov/nchs/data/hestat/maternal-mortality/2020/maternal-mortality-rates-2020.htm
https://constitutioncenter.org/interactive-constitution/amendment/amendment-x
Bayou Observant 
2 thoughts on “Life, Love, and Legal Logistics”