Roe Died, the Culture of Life Rises, and the Real Work Begins

"Since the first century the Church has affirmed the moral evil of every procured abortion. This teaching has not changed and remains unchangeable. Direct abortion, that is to say, abortion willed either as an end or a means, is gravely contrary to the moral law" (Catechism of the Catholic Church No. 2271). 

Highlights

By Deacon Keith Fournier, JD, MTS, MPHIL
1/20/2023 (1 year ago)

Published in Marriage & Family

Keywords: Roe, Wade, Deacon, Keith Fournier, abortion

On June 24, 2022, the Feast of the Sacred Heart of Jesus on the Roman Catholic Liturgical Calendar, the United States Supreme Court issued its long-awaited opinion in the Mississippi case entitled Dobbs v Jackson Women's Health Organization. 

Like millions throughout the world, I am deeply grateful to the Lord for hearing our prayer. As a Christian, I know that the Second Person of the Blessed Trinity, Jesus, spent nine months in the womb of Mary. He began his redemptive mission in the Womb. He has heard the cries of the millions of children killed through procured abortions.

As an American citizen, a constitutional lawyer, and a Catholic Moral Theologian, I unqualifiedly oppose the taking of innocent human life through procured abortion. It is intrinsically evil and unconstitutional. 

I went to Law School and entered the legal profession to stop the evil of legalized abortion. For forty-three years, as a lawyer, I have participated in multiple efforts to overturn Roe v Wade. On June 24, 2022, the United States Supreme Court dealt a fatal blow to Roe v Wade, by directly overruling it.  Roe died.

Contrary to the claims of most mainstream media reports on June 24, 2022, the Supreme Court did NOT overturn a so-called "Right to Abortion". There is no such Right in the United States Constitution. Roe v Wade and its progeny, including the Casey opinion (which was also overruled on June 24th) were wrongly decided. 

The majority opinion was written by Justice Samuel Alito, who was joined by Justices Thomas, Gorsuch, Kavanaugh, and Barrett. The Syllabus of the opinion summarized it best: 

"The Constitution does not confer a right to abortion; Roe and Casey are overruled; and the authority to regulate abortion is returned to the people and their elected representatives."   

The effect of the Dobbs opinion is that the issue of regulating the act of procured abortion now returns to the States. This was a welcome day for everyone who recognizes the real right at issue, the fundamental Right to Life of the child in the womb. 

Honest people acknowledge that children killed by abortion are human persons. Very few hold on to the dangerous notion that dependency upon others makes someone less of a human person. We are all dependent on others. 

Medical science has confirmed what our consciences and the Natural Law told us all along. Children in the womb are our neighbors. We frame babies' first pictures in their 3D or 4D image through sonogram technology. 

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We use intrauterine surgery to intervene to save them or correct anything which they may need to be corrected to ensure their good health even before they are born. We prosecute an offender who, in the act of harming their mother, causes their death as well. 

So, what is left? 

The argument that the decision to kill these little girls and boys should be left to the mother in consultation with her own Doctor and/or other counselors? Let's be honest. What other group of human persons can be killed because someone else determines they do not want them to live? 

Many try to call this intentional taking of innocent human life "healthcare". Others, try to claim that the decision to take their life is a "reproductive choice". Procured abortion is not health care; it is the execution of a child. And there is absolutely NOTHING reproductive about taking the life of that little boy or girl. 

The Right to Life is the foundation of all other rights. It is also the first solidarity issue. The child in the womb is our innocent neighbor. It is wrong to kill any innocent neighbor. We know this and we have perpetuated the lie for too long. 

Without recognizing this first Right to Life there can be no recognition of any other derivative human rights. In fact, the entire infrastructure of human rights is placed at risk. All true Human Rights are goods of human persons. When there is no human person there can be no rights endowed upon them or exercised by them. All the other "rights talk" in the world will not change that. 

The American founders stood in the long trajectory of Western civilization in their insistence that human rights are not given or bestowed by government but by the God in whose Image we have all been created. Truly just governments are instituted precisely to secure these human rights. The first among them is the Right to Life.

On June 24, 2022, the Supreme Court overruled Roe and Casey. That was only the beginning of correcting the evil that "legal" abortion has begun. Now, the real work begins. Thirteen States have outlawed or severely limited procured abortion. 

Every State must do so. 

If we allow the innocent blood of children to be shed by any State- and then protect the evil act with the Police Power of that State - we undermine the notion of ordered liberty upon which our Nation was founded. Those engaged in the Pro-Life movement must not rest. 

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Roe Died, the Culture of Life Rises, and the Real Work Begins.