Farewell Roe v. Wade

Child at 13 weeks

After nearly fifty years, and millions of murdered children, and countless attempts by pro-life organizations, Roe v. Wade has finally been overturned. This does not mean that abortion is suddenly illegal. What it means is that the individual states must now craft their own abortion laws. Writing for the majority, Justice Alito said, "‘We hold, [that] the Constitution does not confer a right to abortion.’ Justice Alito also said any state regulation of abortion is presumptively valid and, ‘must be sustained if there is a rational basis on which the legislature could have thought’ it was serving ‘legitimate state interests,’ including ‘respect for and preservation of prenatal life at all stages of development.’”

This is good news and bad news. The ruling does remove the wrongheaded assumption that the Constitutional right to privacy includes the right to murder unborn children. That’s good news. The bad news is that there will undoubtedly be states that find “a rational basis” for abortion that serves “legitimate state interests.” Convenience will still trump the sanctity of life in some people’s mind. If a state decides that it would be rational to end a pregnancy through abortion to preclude the possibility of having to pay for an unwanted child, legitimate state interests could be claimed.

What the overturn of Roe v. Wade did not do is clear up the underlying question of when human rights begin to apply to a fetus, the question being whether an unborn baby is truly human. As a Christian, there can be no question because the Bible repeatedly asserts that the life of every human being exists in God’s mind even before conception. Psalm 139 states this most clearly:

“Indeed you created my inward parts;

you wove me in my mother’s womb.

I praise you because I am fearfully

and wonderfully made.

Wonderful are your works,

and my soul knows it well.

My frame was not hidden from you,

when I was created secretly,

and intricately woven

in the depths of the earth.

Your eyes saw my embryo,

and in your book, they all were written—

days fashioned for me when there was not one of them.”

Even if we didn’t have the Bible to rely on, there is good, logical reason to believe human life begins at conception. The DNA in the sperm and egg are human DNA. The entity that issues from the fertilized egg can be nothing but human. There is no question there. Ignoring this, the courts have struggled for the last fifty years to decide whether there is a point of viability at which a fertilized egg becomes human. Viability is taken to mean the ability to exist outside the womb which is really a question of where a thing exists not what it is essentially.

One must ask how human-ness can be defined if DNA is ignored. Some believers wanting to preserve abortion rights have suggested that the unborn baby doesn’t become human until it takes a breath. They make the claim that Adam didn’t become human until God breathed the “breath of life” into him. That may have been the case for Adam, but there is no biblical evidence that God breathes life into every individual child that has been born since Adam. Rather, the method of procreation instituted by God at creation continues the miracle of life through natural means.

When developing in the womb, the unborn baby gets its life-giving oxygen from its mother’s blood. Once the baby’s umbilical cord is severed, the baby’s lungs take over the function of providing oxygen. This simple change in the source of oxygen does not signal a transition from not-human to human. A baby does not change physically when it takes its first breath. It is also true that every creature that exists on land breathes air; every creature is not therefore human. The breath of life argument doesn’t hold up.

Another argument for assigning human-ness at the point of conception might be called an argument from potentiality. A kernel of corn placed in the ground becomes a stalk of corn. A planted acorn becomes an oak tree. A fertilized chicken egg becomes a chicken. A fertilized cow ovum becomes a cow. Corn doesn’t produce oak trees; chicken eggs don’t hatch cows. A fertilized human egg cannot become anything but a human. The real argument today is whether all humans, including the unborn, have equal rights under the law.

Bioethicists are beginning to argue that despite the presence of human-ness, some classes of persons might justifiably be denied human rights. Unwanted or premature babies, mentally deficient children and adults, people debilitated by the process of aging can all be considered less than human and not deserving the rights granted to “fully human” beings. This is a very dangerous line to follow, but it has credibility among those people who are utilitarian or pragmatic in their philosophies. It can also be used in the “legitimate state interest” argument: a person who cannot contribute to society in any meaningful way should not be granted full human rights and become a burden to the state. Terminating those humans would be a benefit to the non-terminated humans. Unwanted pregnancies can be terminated for the good of society, so they say.

As of 2019 (the latest year with statistics since Roe v. Wade in 1973) there have been 63,459,781 aborted fetuses in the United States. Over 63 million human beings have been thrown in the trash. That is a national tragedy that underscores the shift in this country away from Judeo-Christian principles. Many state legislatures will find their own way to provide abortion rights similar to Roe v. Wade. As I have written previously, the decoupling of procreation from sex with the easy availability of birth control hastened the rise of promiscuity and placed the institution of marriage in second place behind physical gratification. The push to redefine gender and marriage further weakened the biblical institution.

We have good reason to celebrate the reversal of Roe v. Wade. Christians should not abandon the battle for the sanctity of life, however. The front lines have now been moved to the state legislatures making it more difficult in some ways. Instead of a single pro-life march on Washington, we will now need to approach lawmakers in every state that tries to reinstate abortion à la Roe v. Wade.  This is just one front in the culture war Christians should be engaged in. Although our true enemy is “spiritual wickedness in the heavenlies,” our enemy on the ground is apathy. Christians are no longer the majority in many areas. However, if we voted as a bloc, we could have significant influence on policy especially at the local level.

Say a prayer of thanks that the devouring lion of Roe v. Wade has been defanged. Stay on your knees, however, and continue praying that the one “looking for someone to devour” will be held back in other critical areas. Then get off your knees and do something. Saint Augustine is supposed to have said, “Pray like it all depends on God and work like it all depends on you.” That’s great advice.

Related posts: Whose War on Women?