Ruling 6 to 3 to end the 49-year-old old legal precedent of 1973 Roe v. Wade, the landmark Supreme Court ruing legalizing abortion in the U.S., the U.S. Supreme Court majority echoed the views of religious fanatics that, under the pro-life movement, championed the rights of the unborn child. Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts voted against the High Court’s liberal minority, including Associate Justices Elena Kagan, Stephen Breyer and Sonia Sotomayor to end the 49-year-old legal precedent permitting any pregnant woman to consult her doctor and decide what to do with her body. Associate Justices Samuel Alito, Clarence Thomas, Neil Gorsuch, Brett Kavanaugh and Amy Coney Barrett joined the majority opinion that that Roe v. Wade was unconstitutional, saying the U.S. Constitution, in its originalist form, makes no provision for abortion.
Built into the Establishment Clause of the U.S. Coonstitution written by Thomas Jefferson, “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise therefof,” Jefferson wrote in the First Amendment. Adopting the Establishment Clause, Jefferson wrote the government builds “a wall of separation between church and state.” Striking down Roe v. Wade the Supreme Court violated its Establishment Clause, prohibiting religion from influencing the public debate and laws. In pushing to overturn jRoe v. Wade, religious groups, and religious thinking conservative Supreme Court justices, violated the fundamental separation of church and state guaranteed in the First Amendment. Jefferson and other Framers had no idea 235 years after signing the Constitution Dec. 17, 1787, the Supreme Court would violate the Establishment Clause.
Recently appointed Associate Justices Gorsuch, Kavangaugh and Coney Barrett all told the Senate Judiciary Committee at their confirmation hearings that Roe v. Was established legal precedent, meaning that expressed no desire to undo settled law, but that’s exactly what they did in overturning Roe v. Wade. As Constitutional scholars it’s easy to rely on origninalist thinking about the Constitutional right to abortion guaranteed under Roe v. Wade. But what all six justices forgot was something far more basic that whether on legal grounds, Roe v. Wade was correctly or incorrectly decided. In his majority draft opinion, leaked to the press May 2, Samuel Alito argued that Roe v. Wade was incorrectly decided because the Constitution offers no guarantee specifically for abortion. Alito, Thomas, Roberts, Gorsuch, Kavanaugh and Coney Barret all ignored the Establishment Clause, prohibiting religious tests.
Most, if not all of the pro-life lobby, including the main one National Right to Life, are based on Christian churches, all uniformly against abortion. So when Alito, Thomas, Roberts, Gorsuch, Kavanaugh and Coney Barret struck down Roe v. Wade they let their religious views to color their Supreme Court ruling. If every institution is the country, including the nation’s public education system, is bound by the Establishment and Separation Clauses, both prohibit religion from interfering in the applications of the nation’s laws or, for that matter, the High Court’s ruling on any subject pending before the judicial system. If asked whether Alito, Thomas, Roberts, Gorsuch, Kavanaugh and Coney Barrett have religious convictions that color their thinking the right to abortion, they’d have to admit they do. It’s not enough to say Roe v. Wade wasn’t guaranteed by the Constitution.
In the Aug. 2, 1776 Declaration of Independence guarantees “Life, Liberty and Pursuit of Happiness,” something the six justice took away from millions of women who, for the last 49 years, relied on their personal and medical decisions to decide whether abortion was right for them. Today’s ruling opens up a can of worms for state legislature having to decide, if they do offer abortions, the time-frame in which they’re considered legal. Right to life groups, like the National Right to Life lobby, believe that life begins at conception, not some embryologic stage of fetal development. So when state legislatures try to figure out how long to let women get abortions, they must do exhaustive analyzes from medical and legal experts about when life begins or when to place limits on abortion. State legislature now have to deal with the abortion pill RU-486 or Mitepristone that works for 77 days or 11 weeks.
Some states have trigger laws that go into effect as soon as the ruling against Roe v. Wade goes into effect. These laws in some states either ban abortions outright or give women up 15 weeks to make a decision. Under 1992 Planned Parenthood v. Casey, the court ruled that states could enact bans on abortion after the fetus had become viable at 23 or 24 weeks. At least 15 states, largely in the South, will implement outright bans on abortion, with other states putting strict limits on time frame at 15 weeks. Questions over whether or not Alito, Roberts, Thomas, Gorsuch, Kavanaugh and Coney Barrett violated the First Amendments Establishment and Separation clauses opens up a can of worms for the High Court ruling today. Religious reasons for ending abortion are strictly prohibited Under the First Amendment. Today’s ruling striking down Roe raises more issues than it settles, promising many new legal challenges.
About the Author
John M. Curtis writes politically neutral commentary analyzing spin in national and global news. He’s editor of OnlineColumnist.com and author of Dodging The Bullet and Operation Charisma.
