Would this legislation actually overturn Roe v. Wade?
Yes, it would. Few people realize that Roe v. Wade shows us the way to its own downfall. The key passage, written by the author of the majority opinion, Justice Harry Blackmun, states in unequivocal terms: If personhood is established, the case for legalized abortion collapses, for the fetus' right to life would be guaranteed by the 14th Amendment." (Roe v. Wade, Majority Decision, Section IX) The pro-life movement keeps trying to make believe that it can work within the framework of Roe v. Wade, gradually chipping away at abortion. At the same time, the number of victims of abortion keeps climbing and well-intentioned laws are struck down time after time by the monolith of Roe v. Wade. The Right to Life Act faces the reality that the wall of abortion is still intact. Roe v. Wade itself offers us the key to bring down abortion, that key is personhood, and the Congress has ample room under our Constitution to define it to include the unborn.
I have copied and pasted this entire post and e-mailed it to my GOP Congressman, Kevin Brady (R-TX).
Why didn't someone do this sooner? Anyone care to take a stab at the chances of it passing both Houses?
Some people act as if treating a fetus in the first semester as nothing of value or legal standing is a new concept foisted on us by liberals. In fact, it has been a part of the legal tradition our country is based on for thousands of years. The idea of treating a fetus as an entity with legal standing is modern invention. Not a value judgment, just an observation that puts this matter into context.
I'd love to see this bill passed.
Realistically, I think it will be DOA (aborted?) in the Senate.
Hold it, hold it! Are they saying that we were fighting tooth and nail for 30+ years to restructure the Supreme Court, partially so it would overturn Roe v Wade, when all we had to do to change it was railroad a piece of legislation through Congress???? I don't believe that; something is missing here. If it had been this simple someone would have come up with the idea decades ago. It might be a nice symbolic gesture, but I can't imagine that, legally, it would actually change anything.
Thank you for that wonderful news.
Now it's time for us to get busy and contact our U.S. senators and reps, and write letters to editors to ask others to do the same.
Catholicpress.org is a good place for Catholics to go to find e-mails for all Catholic diocesan newspapers, and some nondiocesan newspapers, in the country, and write those letters to editors.
Blessing and benediction on Rep. Duncan Hunter for his compassion for the weak and voiceless. May this effort find a foothold in hearts not yet too stony to care anymore.
Slim and none, and Slim has been out of town a long time now.
There's no way something this big could ever get past even a 100% GOP congress in one lurch. They would do better to start with unborn babies that could be delivered alive, and keep the life of mother exception (have you EVER seen the life of mother exception -- and please stay on topic when answering -- prevail in a court where it was clearly frivolous?).
If this is a legitimate sincere effort and not some political posturing , my hat is off to these who are are willing to be real leaders and not doormats, no matter the outcome.
Who knows there might be the tiniest glimmer of hope for our country yet.
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BUMP!
Hear, hear! I have for years said that Section 5 of the 14th Amendment gives Congress the power to get rid of abortion once and for all. President Bush better make sure that he names a judicial conservative to replace O'Connor (Miers just doesn't hack it)---maybe Judge Janice Rogers Brown---so that the Supremes don't strike down Hunter's bill if and when it becomes law. But the way that Kennedy has been ruling lately, we may need for President Bush to replace Stevens as well.
Your help is urgently needed to pass the most important piece of federal legislation to be introduced since the criminalization of slavery.
On February 2, 2005, Congressman Duncan Hunter (R-CA) introduced the Right to Life Act of 2005 (View Text) which, if passed, would implement the right to life for each born and pre-born human person under the 14th Amendment to the US Constitution. This legislation would literally STOP abortion in America all abortion because the Constitution would guarantee the right to life for the pre-born.
As the current situation now stands, even if Supreme Court Justices were appointed that would overturn Roe v. Wade (and we have serious doubts this will happen), the so-called right to an abortion would revert to the control of each state. Some states would certainly outlaw abortion, but many states already have laws on the books to make sure that abortion on demand continues unabated.
That is why control of the Supreme Court, while critically important, is only a partial answer to seeing the scourge of abortion forever removed from our nation.
The Right to Life Act is nothing new to the US Congress. It was introduced yearly by former Rep. Bob Dornan, the firebrand pro-lifer from Orange County, California when he served in Congress in the 1990s. When Dornan was defeated in 1997, Congressman Duncan Hunter of San Diego County agreed to continue to submit this legislation each year, but each year no hearings were scheduled and the bill languished in obscurity and neglect.
However, this year is different.
The culture in America is undergoing a remarkable change and is increasingly uncomfortable with abortion on demand. The Pro-life Movement is especially making great gains among the younger generation, which is more pro-life that ever before. In fact, for the first time in decades, the majority of Americans consider themselves pro-life!
The last presidential election was a water-shed moment in American history when a president was elected primarily by citizens who wanted to see the Supreme Court move to the right and overturn Roe v. Wade. Abortion is THE issue in the current debate over the next Supreme Court justice. Americans want and need a public discourse on abortion and the question of when life begins.
With the current debate on abortion surrounding the recent Supreme Court vacancies, more and more people are seeing that the courts are only part of the answer. The document to which all our laws must comply, the U.S. Constitution, must be legally interpreted to clearly and unequivocally protect the lives of pre-born boys and girls.
The Right to Life Act of 2005 would do just that!
Political and cultural conditions are the most favorable they have ever been for legislation that would implement equal protections under the Constitution and restore the legal protections of personhood to the pre-born.
Now is the time to press for the Right to Life Act of 2005.
Currently, the RTL Act is languishing in the House Judiciary Subcommittee on the Constitution. No hearings have been scheduled. Hearings are important because they will open up the national debate about the personhood of the pre-born a debate that is long overdue.
When the Congress held hearings on the partial-birth abortion ban, the entire nation became aware of the heinous nature of late-term abortions. They began to understand that there are some things civilized people JUST DONT DO. The attitudes of Americans were changed as a result and now the overwhelming majority of our countrymen oppose late-term abortions.
We believe that a similar debate concerning the personhood of the pre-born could further enlighten our nation as to the heinous nature of ALL abortion, and could be the next step in reclaiming the right to life for ALL Americans, regardless of their age or stage of development.
We must get America talking about the personhood of the pre-born and the all-important question of when life begins. This is a debate the abortion lobby fears more than anything because they know it is a debate we will always win!
THIS IS WHERE YOU COME IN!
We are asking you to do three things to help move this live-saving legislation along and open the national debate on the personhood of children in the womb:
- Contact the Congressman from your district and ask him or her to sign on as a co-sponsor of the Right to Life Act of 2005. Currently there are 68 co-sponsors, more than there have ever been! But more are needed to give this bill the kind of respectability that will motivate Congressional action.
Click here to view the current list of co-sponsors.
Click here to contact your representative.
. Rep. Sensenbrenner is the Chairman of the House Judiciary Committee. It is within his power to schedule hearings or kill this bill through neglect. It is guaranteed that he will not act UNLESS HE HEARS FROM US! Congress has reconvened this week, and all representatives at their Washington DC offices now.
- Contact Congressman Jim Sensenbrenner (R-WI) and ask him to schedule hearings on the Right to Life Act of 2005
Congressman Jim Sensenbrenner:
E-mail: sensenbrenner@mail.house.gov
Phone in Washington DC: (202) 225-5101
- Forward this message to your friends and family and ask them to do the same.
There has never been a better opportunity to pass legal protections for the pre-born that now. We know not everyone can protest against abortion, or drive a Truth Truck, or hold a graphic sign. But everyone CAN and SHOULD make two phone calls or write two e-mails asking for co-sponsorship and hearings for the Right to Life Act of 2005.
Please do not let this bill continue to languish in neglect. If we have to wait until 2006, there is no guarantee conditions will be as favorable.
But most importantly, if we have to wait another year, the lives of 1.3 million innocent children will be needlessly taken by abortion! Thats right. The lives of 1.3 million children (and countless more if this bill is not debated and passed) desperately depend on you and me making a couple of phone calls and sending a couple of e-mails. (After all weve been through, how ironic is that!)
Please stop and make your calls and send your messages now!
While you are at it, please call or fax Congressman Duncan Hunter and let him know you appreciate his staunch pro-life efforts. Rep. Hunter is well known to those of us from Southern California and has been kind and courageous enough to speak on behalf of the pre-born at our rallies in past years. Please let him know his efforts are appreciated. He can be reached at (202) 225-5672; FAX: (202) 225-0235.
bttt