In the US, the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade.
What does this mean? It means that the states of the US will each decide how they want to legislate on the issues of protection of human life and abortion.
What does it not mean? Overturning Roe v. Wade will not automatically make Americans more protective of human life at its most vulnerable moments – the first nine months of life –, it will not automatically make Americans more supportive of women in crisis pregnancies, nor will it ban abortion in states where the majority wants it legal.
Here are some thoughts on the Roe v. Wade overturn:
First: No surprise. For months now, the press has been saying that this would be the opinion. But more importantly, the current makeup of the Supreme Court favors such a decision. Politically, there are two important issues: the fact that this is a federal decision and the fact that it doesn’t force states to do anything contrary to the US Constitution. The reality is that the US is made up of 50 states, each with its own Constitution, Congress and Supreme Court. In 1973, the Roe v. Wade decision struck down the states’ right to legislate on abortion, an issue on which, then and now, there are huge differences between the states. The states have now regained the right to rule on the issue. It may be harder for us to understand, but the US is a federation that remains united because of a fine balance between decisions that are made at the federal level and decisions that are made at the state level.
Second: the huge emotions, pro and con, that are pouring out on social media and in the media tend to ignore the essence of the abortion issue: why it occurs, what it is, and what the consequences of abortion are. Let’s take them one by one.
Why does it happen? Abortion doesn’t happen because it’s legal and it doesn’t go away because it’s illegal. Abortion occurs because of the problems that make up the crisis pregnancy of each woman, individually. It disappears when her specific problems are resolved. It occurs when those problems are not resolved.
What is it? Abortion (on demand as well as those abortions that are performed because of fetal impairment) is the ending an innocent and defenseless human person’s life, justified by the fact that those who have power over them feel that the child is interfering with their life (and here let us not ignore the truth that in most cases women make the decision to abort because of pressure or threats from the father of the child). Any words about abortion that circumvent this truth do not change it.
What are the consequences? The child dies. The woman is left with the problems that led her into crisis pregnancy.
Third: „Have an abortion, I don’t care about your problems!” and „Don’t have an abortion, I don’t care about your problems!” are almost equivalent. Pro-abortion and anti-abortion are not solutions.
The real solution is to support the woman AND the child. Pro-woman, pro-child. It’s the hardest, but it’s the only true solution.
The legality or illegality of abortion is provisional. Abortion must become INCONCEIVABLE!
