It has been twenty-five years since the Supreme Court issued its opinion in Roe v. Wade – an opinion that I believe was misunderstood then, and I know is misunderstood now.
It has been twenty-five years since the Supreme Court issued its opinion in Roe v. Wade – an opinion that I believe was misunderstood then, and I know is misunderstood now.
Roe is a case about the proper role of government. The question before the court was whether individual states could choose to outlaw abortions, thus imposing the religious or moral beliefs of some citizens upon those who did not share those beliefs. In order to decide that question, the Court examined the nature of the government’s interest as against the individual liberty female citizens presumably enjoy under our Constitution and Bill of Rights.
isa case about the proper role of government. The question before the court was whether individual states could choose to outlaw abortions, thus imposing the religious or moral beliefs of some citizens upon those who did not share those beliefs. In order to decide that question, the Court examined the nature of the government’s interest as against the individual liberty female citizens presumably enjoy under our Constitution and Bill of Rights.
Because Roe is so misunderstood, I think it is important to note what the Court did not say. The Court did NOT say abortion was a good thing and everyone ought to have one. The Court did NOT say that the state had no interest in the matter at all; indeed, concern for women’s health and proper medical care played a significant role in the decision. The Court simply stated that a woman’s right to make her own religious and moral choices could not be trumped by the legislature until after fetal viability.
In the years since that decision, many people have forgotten what life was like before it. This Sunday’s New York Times Magazine ran an article interviewing OB-GYNs who practiced before Roe. They remember the young women who became infertile, the young women who died, because their desperation led them to the sorts of people who were willing to defy the law.
Like all of you, I have been reading the letters to the Editor and the columns by those who believe government should substitute its moral judgment for that of the women involved. All of them talk about the number of abortions since Roe, and there have been a lot. What they don’t mention is that, according to most estimates, there were as many or more before Roe; they simply weren’t safe, legal or counted. Today, according to the New York Times, countries like Ireland which ban abortion have a higher rate of abortion than western European countries that allow them.
So the debate is not about numbers; women will abort whether it is legal or not. They did so when I was growing up, and advances in medicine make it easier, not more difficult, to evade such laws today.
Nor is the debate about morality. Morality does not exist in the absence of free choice. Those who believe that abortion is morally wrong remain free to carry their pregnancies to term. They are free to buy newspaper ads, write letters to the editor, counsel their friends against the procedure, and picket abortion clinics.
This debate is about the proper role of government in a free and open society. It is about what happens to respect for the rule of law when government passes laws that are widely believed to be improper and so are widely ignored. It is about the right of a vocal minority to use the power of the state to the detriment of those who hold different views.
Roe was first and foremost a statement about the limits of government power. A government with the power to prohibit abortion is a government with the power to require abortion. Roe v Wade was an affirmation that in a free society, government may not exercise such power.
was first and foremost a statement about the limits of government power. A government with the power to prohibit abortion is a government with the power to require abortion. v was an affirmation that in a free society, government may not exercise such power.
