Sunday, January 18, 2004
This week is Sanctity of Human Life Week. 31 years ago this week, the US Supreme Court handed down its fateful Roe v. Wade decision, legalizing abortion in the United States. The 7-2 decision centered on the supposed unconstitutionality of a Texas law outlawing abortion except in instances where the mother’s life was endangered. The Court decided the US Constitution protected a woman’s right to kill her unborn baby for any reason. At least, that is how it has been interpreted. This would eventually include the gruesome procedure of aborting half-born babies. President Bush signed a law outlawing this procedure last fall but it was immediately challenged by the courts.
The moral issue should be obvious. As a Christian, I believe all life is sacred because people are made in the image of God. But there is another issue here. In handing down this ruling, the Supreme Court violated the principles of the Constitution. By constitutional law, courts were only intended to interpret laws; the legislatures (whether Congress or individual state legislatures) were supposed to actually make them. Yet in this ruling Justice Harry Blackmun took it upon himself to instruct state legislatures on what laws they were to make in regards to abortion. But the Constitution gives justices no such authority. The people of America are supposed to be allowed, through their elected representatives, to make their own laws. But the Supreme Court in 1973 denied them this right and, in essence, made their laws for them. It has set a disturbing trend for the last 31 years. Contrary to what the media may say, the American people have never voted to make abortion legal, nor indeed did Congress until forced to by the US Supreme Court. You will never see a better example of one branch of our government lording it over the others.
Many today worry about the supposed powers the President has been granted to combat terrorism. This could well be a problem down the road. But the problem of judges overstepping the bounds of their lawful authority is here and now. It has been happening for 31 years and even again, only recently, the Massachusetts Supreme Court ordered the state legislature to rewrite their Constitution, allowing for gay marriages in the state. Again, the State Supreme Court has no such power to demand that. But the State Legislature does have the power to cut the justices’ salaries and, in fact, to impeach them. It wouldn’t hurt for judges to remember this little fact.
Despite what we’ve been told, court rulings, even Supreme Court rulings, are not sacrosanct. In 1853, they decided the Constitution protected slavery and no northern state governments were to be allowed to interfere with the rights of the southern states to own slaves. If Abraham Lincoln and people like him had believed the Supreme Court was the final authority, we wouldn't have to worry about Al Sharpton running for President--he would still be picking cotton for free somewhere in the Deep South.
President Bush and other prominent law-makers have suggested they may be open to the possibility of overturning Roe v. Wade. Like slavery, abortion is a black stain on our society and it deserves all our efforts to defeat it, just as slavery did. I urge you this week to write your representatives, your senators, and your President and ask them to fight back against this attempt by the US Supreme Court to dictate to our country what laws we will make. Proponents of abortion on demand will try to tell you that when the gavel falls, the argument is over. This is simply untrue. The argument is far from over and Christians should be in the forefront of pressing for the courts to retract their long war on the innocent unborn and in their voting and activities to demand those in power do so. Rather than lie down and play dead, the church must rise up and fight!
The moral issue should be obvious. As a Christian, I believe all life is sacred because people are made in the image of God. But there is another issue here. In handing down this ruling, the Supreme Court violated the principles of the Constitution. By constitutional law, courts were only intended to interpret laws; the legislatures (whether Congress or individual state legislatures) were supposed to actually make them. Yet in this ruling Justice Harry Blackmun took it upon himself to instruct state legislatures on what laws they were to make in regards to abortion. But the Constitution gives justices no such authority. The people of America are supposed to be allowed, through their elected representatives, to make their own laws. But the Supreme Court in 1973 denied them this right and, in essence, made their laws for them. It has set a disturbing trend for the last 31 years. Contrary to what the media may say, the American people have never voted to make abortion legal, nor indeed did Congress until forced to by the US Supreme Court. You will never see a better example of one branch of our government lording it over the others.
Many today worry about the supposed powers the President has been granted to combat terrorism. This could well be a problem down the road. But the problem of judges overstepping the bounds of their lawful authority is here and now. It has been happening for 31 years and even again, only recently, the Massachusetts Supreme Court ordered the state legislature to rewrite their Constitution, allowing for gay marriages in the state. Again, the State Supreme Court has no such power to demand that. But the State Legislature does have the power to cut the justices’ salaries and, in fact, to impeach them. It wouldn’t hurt for judges to remember this little fact.
Despite what we’ve been told, court rulings, even Supreme Court rulings, are not sacrosanct. In 1853, they decided the Constitution protected slavery and no northern state governments were to be allowed to interfere with the rights of the southern states to own slaves. If Abraham Lincoln and people like him had believed the Supreme Court was the final authority, we wouldn't have to worry about Al Sharpton running for President--he would still be picking cotton for free somewhere in the Deep South.
President Bush and other prominent law-makers have suggested they may be open to the possibility of overturning Roe v. Wade. Like slavery, abortion is a black stain on our society and it deserves all our efforts to defeat it, just as slavery did. I urge you this week to write your representatives, your senators, and your President and ask them to fight back against this attempt by the US Supreme Court to dictate to our country what laws we will make. Proponents of abortion on demand will try to tell you that when the gavel falls, the argument is over. This is simply untrue. The argument is far from over and Christians should be in the forefront of pressing for the courts to retract their long war on the innocent unborn and in their voting and activities to demand those in power do so. Rather than lie down and play dead, the church must rise up and fight!
// posted by The Pendragon @ 11:28 AM 
