The Observer, April 20, 2007
Volume XXXIX, Issue 25
Abortion laws belong to the states
Letter to the Editor
To the Editor:
Case Right to Life created a display this week consisting of 3600 paper links circling KSL Oval and a sign that read, "3600 Links, 3600 Abortions, 3600 People – Every Day In America" and "Day Before Birth, Day After Birth: What's the Difference?" This display poignantly reminds the campus of the impact that abortion has on our society every day.
In the 1973 Roe v. Wade and Doe v. Bolton decisions, the U.S. Supreme Court struck down every state's existing abortion laws, effectively ending all medical, political, and philosophical debates surrounding the issue that had been occurring at the time. That decision created an unlimited federal "right" to abortion throughout all nine months of pregnancy. This presents the logical problem pointed out by the display: if our country defines human life as worthy of protection after birth, why not before birth? What magical rights-conferring change happens at birth? No new developments take place; the child is still dependent on her mother for life-giving nourishment, yet now, the same destructive action would be considered murder in the eyes of the law.
Once this hypocrisy is realized, it must be taken to either of its logical conclusions – a newborn baby deserves no rights up to a certain age, and is therefore equally eligible to be "aborted," or that all human life should be protected from the defining moment of its existence – its conception. It is at the moment of conception that a new human person is created, with genetic material distinct from its parents, and with the potential, if uninterrupted, to grow into a human adult. At no point after conception can one draw a logical "line" at which an intrinsic right-conferring change occurs – any such judgments are arbitrary.
And so we return to Roe v. Wade. To overturn Roe would not, as many mistakenly believe, make abortion illegal. Instead, it would send the issue of abortion back to the states, where the people and their legislators may create laws which better reflect the will of the American people. It is in this way that we may reconsider the contradictory nature of the current law and work to create legislation which more fairly protects the rights of the most vulnerable citizens, the unborn. This is and always will be the goal of the pro-life movement: to ensure that every unborn child is protected in law and welcomed in life.
Steve Hudelson
Undergraduate Student
