“Roe and Casey must be overruled. The Constitution makes no reference to abortion, and no such right is implicitly protected by any constitutional provision.”
Further, the use of state power to protect the killing of over 60 million innocent persons since 1972 has created grave and lasting implications for our nation, and the Court must correct this grievous error. The Due Process Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment protects the right to life in all corners of this nation. State laws legalizing abortion are overruled.
These should have been the words coming out of the Supreme Court last Friday in its ruling on Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization – a national prohibition of abortion.
While this was unlikely to ever be the case, and it is important that we celebrate the Court’s decision to return the issue to the states, it is just as important that we look to the future of the pro-life movement, and most importantly – decide where we go from here.
All human life is sacred, and real lives hang in the balance of our national policy. While states will do much of the work in prohibiting abortion in the short-term, this is not a long-term solution, especially as abortion will persist in much of the country.
A dynamic conservative movement, unafraid to leverage state power, should begin by examining the resources available to it at the federal level for a national abortion ban. This includes the Fourteenth Amendment’s Due Process Clause, the Necessary and Proper Clause, the Commerce Clause, and the General Welfare Clause.
These Constitutional provisions are ripe for interpretation to protect the dignity of all human life across the country. Congress should begin by enforcing the Fourteenth Amendment’s Due Process Clause’s protection of “life” against any state that continues to allow for legal abortion.
Where states do not comply, extraordinary federal action may be necessary. Similarly, the latter provisions should be used for regulating matters of interstate commerce related to abortion, and for any such legislation that may be needed in enforcing federal protections of life. Eventually, a Constitutional personhood amendment is the target.
Some conservatives have made the point that abortion is ultimately a state issue and that since the Constitution is silent on abortion, the federal government has no role in the matter. However, this argument not only glances over the grave evil of abortion but ignores the glaringly obvious truth that no nation can survive with competing meanings of life and justice.
Neutrality is impossible, and that is where the Dobbs decision does not go far enough. Abortion must be settled at the national level. Murder cannot have different meanings across the country. Passing the issue to the states only pushes off the ultimate issue.
All of this should culminate in a culture of life across the nation, as the law continues to form the consciences, hearts, and minds of the American people. Pro-life and pro-family policies must be instituted across all levels of government, including social services, maternal leave, promoting marriage, tax credits, and more substantive policies that promote the unity and stability of families.
Moreover, Justice Thomas’ concurrence in Dobbs should serve as a guide to the conservative movement, taking on the fiction of substantive due process and reminding us that we must take action to protect the common good of marriage and the family.
Over the last fifty years, 60 million babies have been killed in abortions. That is millions of brothers and sisters, husbands and wives, and fathers and mothers – all equal in their worth, dignity, and right to life. Our political community speaks of “rights” with ambiguity, but nothing is clearer than the right to life itself, and our obligation to protect the most vulnerable among us.
William Benson
William G. Benson is an undergraduate student at The Catholic University of America pursuing a degree in politics with a concentration in political theory. William is the co-founder and editor-in-chief of The American Postliberal, a magazine of Catholic Political Realism. He has been published in The Wall Street Journal, The American Spectator, The Daily Caller, and Crisis Magazine.
The views expressed in this article are the opinion of the author and do not necessarily reflect those of Lone Conservative staff.
@williamgbenson
@williamgbenson