A “friend of the court” petition has been filed in to this case concerning the constitutionality of the Mississippi law restricting abortion after 15 weeks gestation.
The petitioners cite reasons why the Court should make certain findings. A huge issue is whether the 10th Amendment allows the individual states to pass laws concerning issues which are not explicitly relegated to the United States (eg, the US Congress).
If you do not have sufficient experience reading such documents, let me assure you that you do not need to be a lawyer and understand every word or phrase to get something significant out of glancing through the petition.
Unfortunately, although I deal with the background to the cited Roe and Casey findings by the Supreme Court in my book (not yet in publication), there is not room to provide such information under a tab on this web site. Nevertheless, this petition is a good read for those who wonder how the Court may rule, and why. (Hint: it is likely to be a cluster of findings; the power of the states to regulate abortion is likely to be expanded; the issue of fetal viability is likely to be revised; guidance will be given to lower courts who have placed temporary injunctions of state laws attempting to regulate abortion according to the will of the people in those states, so that many can be lifted; there likely will be a number of unexpected rulings; and it is likely that pro-life people will not be completely satisfied.
It is absolutely certain that pro-abortion people will explode with hate-mongering…they are already at it just because the Court decided to take the case. However, the findings in Roe and Casey are far out of date (Roe was nearly 50 years ago) and those findings are far out of touch with our modern concept of the beginning of life and the medical facts of fetal viability and when the fetus can feel pain. But, the big issue is the 10th Amendment.
Pro-abortion sentiment has become woven into a hugely profitable abortion industry, and, as might be expected, those making tons of money will do everything possible to protect their income streams. At the same time, political interests have used every false fear-mongering tactic to mobilize women into pro-abortion groups to vote for that political party. They will also do everything possible to keep their power.
However, the pro-life movement has become armed with the truth, sometimes horrified by the truth, and has rapidly been gaining strength over the last two decades. The hate speech and lies that permeate the pro-abortion tactics are born out of fear of loosing money and power and control. And, worse yet, the uninformed who are mislead by this rhetoric, have genuine fears that women will be forced to become baby factories or have “back -alley” abortions, and some believe that pro-life people hate women and want them to suffer, etc.
What is missing from all of this railing against those who respect life and the dignity of the individual, is any discussion of what can be done to help pregnant women who are distressed and in anguish, filled with fear and uncertainty, confused and often alone and without support. The pro-life faction has taken the challenge and opened pregnancy resource centers within reach of women everywhere. Sadly, the pro-abortion people cling to the proposition that these women do not need health care, do not need material support, do not need emotional support….they need to have an abortion, and then to be abandoned back into the hopelessness with which they started.
The Supreme Court has its challenges in trying to find a path which protects mother and unborn child, but which also does not force women into those situations which the fear-mongers falsely warn against. Nobody in pro-life has ever advocated putting women at risk for harm or in any way promoted an assault against their dignity. The precise opposite is true. And, that is why the Pro-life faction must be attacked viciously and constantly. If those women who have been mislead by hate speech into becoming pro-abortion advocates found the truth and changed their beliefs, they likely would change their voting as well.
All of this prevents an honest discussion of how to prevent situations which drive women to abortion out of despair and hopelessness, seeing no other choice. Of course, there is no “one size fits all” typical woman who seeks an abortion; some women relish the idea and it is a simple inconvenience. The pro-life people want to be available to those women who need help and want help. They do not want any woman to feel like she has to get an abortion because nobody will help her and and because nobody cares.
I would love to hear the conversations between the pro-life and pro-abortion justices, and those in between (if there are any). I wonder if they will talk about the social situations in which women find themselves pregnant. I wonder if we will ever see any discussion in the media on these issues. What if they did? What if people began to support help for women? What if communities demanded that their sons become men and a father to their child?