The Supreme Court, in the Roe v. Wade Decision itself, provided a way to overturn their decision.
If this suggestion of personhood is established, the appellant's case [that is, "Roe" who sought an abortion], of course, collapses, for the fetus' right to life is then guaranteed specifically by the [14th] Amendment.As far as I can tell, the Right to Life Act has received absolutely zero press. I just learned about the act this week. I did a search on Google and found a grand total of zero media references to it. Given the pro-life swing in public opinion, it does not surprise me that many in the media do not want to make this a story.
If you are a fellow blogger and do not agree with this act, please discuss it at your site. This issue is too important to allow the media to prevent its discussion.
I ask any pro-life readers who support this act to do several things.
First of all, send this post to as many of your pro-life friends as possible. If you click on the permalink (the chain icon) and scroll down past the comments section, you can simply enter a friend's email address and it will be forwarded to them. If you have lots of pro-life friends, simply email the post to yourself and then forward it to all. If you are a pro-life blogger, please link to this post on one of your discussions. Let's see how much attention we can draw to this act despite the objections of the traditional media.
Second, contact your congressman or congresswoman and let him or her know you support this bill. If you feel strongly about the issue, write a person letter. You can even collect signatures and send them in – that is a real attention getter. If you do not have time to create your own letter, feel free to use this letter I created. You may use it for either purpose.
Category: Domestic Politics , Category: Philosophy
Jeremy,
You may be right - I'll admit the odds are not high. However, you can't win if you don't try.
More realistically, each attempt gains more publicity. As more and more Americans become pro-life, publicity becomes very important. The media recognizes this, that is one of the reasons these stories get virtually no press.
I sent a link to this article to a friend, and this was her reply, thought you might like to know. Perhaps you do already by now.:
This was actually last years bill. This site tells about it. http://www.theorator.com/bills108/hr3069.html
If you go to this site, it will tell you the most recent right to life bill that has been proposed. Abortion, Cloning, Reproduction Bills, 108th Congress
Jema,
Thanks for the link, it looks interesting. Yes, the Bill was first announced last year, but it is still in committee. Congressmen are still sponsoring it. You can go here and type in "HR 3069" in the search window to get the latest details. On 10/23/03, it was referred to the Subcommittee on the Constitution where it currently resides. Two new sponsors signed up this month, so petitioning your congressman is still important if you want the bill to ever get out of committee and come to a vote.
We are on our 108th Congress, so the Bill must be passed before the 109th Congress (when those elected this November take office) or it will automatically be withdrawn. Of course, it can always be resubmitted, but I'd like to see it come to a vote before the November election. The publicity would probably help get even more pro-life congressmen (and women) elected.
I contributed to the Pro-Life Alliance in support of this bill in response to their mailing. It is my hope, however, that some of the concerns of pro-choicers be adressed. Specifically, if we make abortion illegal, we should provide generous support (though no "perverse incentives" like the old welfare mother thing) to women who carry their babies to term. The alternatives are overly punitive enforcement policies and a large black market for abortions, neither of which appeals to me. We should also generously support the prevention of unwanted pregnancy. Abstinence is the most effective contraceptive, but we should support all family planning tools short of abortion. If we regard abortion as murder, we should make its prevention the highest priority.
Hasn't this already been tried many times? Forgive me for being too much of a realist to think Congress is going to do much with this. Even if it passes the House, which I doubt give the high number of moderate Republicans who say they're pro-choice, I very much doubt the Senate will be able to break a filibuster on it.