Babies: Conception, Heartbeat ... Personhood?

  The Supreme Court legalized abortion in a Jan. 22, 1973, ruling (7-2) on Roe v. Wade, establishing a national right to abortion.  

“The Supreme Court made up a constitutional right to abortion out of thin air, only citing a constitutional right to privacy, which was also made up out of thin air,” says Stephen Strang, Charisma magazine founder. “Instead of interpreting the law already found in the Constitution, they replaced the law with their own opinion.”On June 24, 2022, the Supreme Court overturned (5-4) Roe v. Wade, after 49 years and more than 63 million abortions.

Abortion has not been outlawed. Decisions on abortion laws simply go back to individual states. The Constitution says most laws should be decided by states, Strang notes.

 

HOW DID THIS PLAY OUT?

   

The 14th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, ratified in 1868, granted citizenship to all persons born or naturalized in the United States — including former enslaved people — and guaranteed all citizens “equal protection of the laws.” The Roe v. Wade case began in 1970 when “Jane Roe” — a fictional name used to protect the identity of the plaintiff, Norma McCorvey (1947–2017) — began federal action against Henry Wade, the district attorney of Dallas County, Texas, where Roe resided, sources say. “Jane Roe” sued the state of Texas because under that state’s laws, she was unable to get an abortion. The case went to the Supreme Court.

   

The Supreme Court disagreed with Roe’s claim of an absolute right to terminate pregnancy in any way and at any time, and the Court tried to balance a woman’s right of privacy with a state’s interest in regulating abortion.

 

In 1973, Supreme Court judges said the state had a “compelling interest” in protecting fetal life, but that the compelling interest had to be balanced with a woman’s right to privacy. That ruling struck down most U.S. state laws that restricted abortion in the first trimester of pregnancy.

 

Writing for the majority opinion in Roe v. Wade, Justice Harry Blackmun said that the court held that a woman’s right to an abortion was part of the right to privacy protected under the 14th Amendment. The state of Texas argued that “the fetus is a ‘person’ within the language and meaning of the 14th Amendment.” 

 

Justice Harry Blackmun responded, “If this suggestion of personhood is established, the appellant’s case, of course, collapses, for the fetus’ right to life would then be guaranteed specifically by the Amendment.” However, Justice Blackmun concluded “that the word ‘person,’ as used in the Fourteenth Amendment, does not include the unborn.”

   

The 1973 Supreme Court set forth a “trimester” framework for legal abortions. First Trimester (up to 12 weeks): absolute right to an abortion in the first three months of pregnancy. Second Trimester (up to 28 weeks): allowed the government to regulate abortion in order to protect the mother’s health, but could not ban it. Third Trimester (up to 40 weeks): Because the fetus is considered “viable” (can survive on its own outside the womb — about 24 weeks of pregnancy), the Court said states could prohibit abortion except in cases when the mother's life was at risk.

   

S.C. law in 2022 outlaws abortion after the point at which a fetal heartbeat is detected. A fetal heartbeat may first be detected by a vaginal ultrasound as early as 5.5 to 6 weeks after gestation (the womb-carry process between conception and birth), sources say. 

 

“Those providing abortions will be required to give the mother an opportunity to view an ultrasound, hear the child’s heartbeat, and receive information about her child’s development,” according to The Greenville News (July 1, 2022). The law allows abortion in a case of rape or incest or to save the mother’s life if the baby is fewer than 20 weeks along.

     

The Supreme Court’s 1973 decision was based on the argument that fetal life does not have constitutional protection. Many people believe life begins at conception and deserves constitutional protection at conception. Banning abortion after conception is the goal of many pro-life groups.

 

“For you [God] formed my inward parts; you knitted me together in my mother’s womb” (Psalm 139:13 ESV).