[wideawake]

That being said, it is NOT the right of the federal government to dictate to the states what's legal and what's not in this instance.

Muddled thinking.

The government does not have rights: it has specific Constitutional obligations and is granted the requisite authority to undertake those obligations.

Under the 14th Amendment, the federal government has the obligation to ensure that no state deprives any person of life without due process of law.

The states do not get to decide who gets to live and who gets to die. They have absolutely zero authority under the US Constitution to legislate on depriving unborn persons of life.

If one believes that abortion is a matter for the states, then one believes that the unborn are not persons and are therefore not protected by the 14th Amendment to the US Constitution.

[OCCASparky]

If one believes that abortion is a matter for the states, then one believes that the unborn are not persons and are therefore not protected by the 14th Amendment to the US Constitution.

The whole crux of that arguement being that neither the states, the feds, nor the scientific community have definitively stated when life begins. When that occurs, then you can effectively have states legislate. However, even in that instance the federal government should not interfere.

You say tomato, I say dictate. Now you're just parsing words. The feds do not have a obligation or a duty to determine the legality of abortion.

That being said, I'm also all for cutting off all federal funding to "planning" clinics, etc., who advocate or perform abortion. Why our tax dollars fund that still amazes me.

[drpix]

"If one believes that abortion is a matter for the states, then one believes that the unborn are not persons and are therefore not protected by the 14th Amendment to the US Constitution."

The 14th Amendment begin:

"All persons born or naturalized in the United States..."

How are the unborn persons covered? Ask guru Ron Paul and get back to me!

(To save posting space see post #34 for why the 13th & 15th Amendments also fail to cover the unborn.)

[sitetest]

Dear wideawake,

Under the theory that the Fourteenth Amendment applies to unborn persons (and I agree that the most rational conclusion is that it does), the states most certainly do have a role to play.

The Fourteenth Amendment essentially mades the killing of unborn persons homicide, for legal purposes.

States certainly have a role in determining how to classify homicides, what punishments should apply, when appropriate, for different types of homicide, etc.

And states differ, from state to state, in how their laws work governing homicide. In some states, if you shoot someone who has broken into your house, and of whom you can make a rational case for some fear of harm, you’re good to go. In my state of Maryland, unless you can demonstrate that you couldn’t flee from the aggressor, you can be charged with murder.

sitetest