Way Up North: The Supreme Court Must Get it Right

"America needs no words from me to see how your decision in Roe v. Wade has deformed a great nation. The so-called right to abortion has pitted mothers against their children and women against men. It has sown violence and discord at the heart of the most intimate human relationships. It has aggravated the derogation of the father's role in an increasingly fatherless society. It has portrayed the greatest of gifts -- a child -- as a competitor, an intrusion, and an inconvenience. It has nominally accorded mothers unfettered dominion over the independent lives of their physically dependent sons and daughters. And, in granting this unconscionable power, it has exposed many women to unjust and selfish demands from their husbands or other sexual partners. Human rights are not a privilege conferred by government. They are every human being's entitlement by virtue of his humanity. The right to life does not depend, and must not be declared to be contingent, on the pleasure of anyone else, not even a parent or a sovereign."(1) (Mother Teresa)

As we pray today regarding the Supreme Court Justices’ votes which will occur today, let’s ponder what some great leaders have said about abortion. The above poignant quote from the late Mother Teresa, one of the great humanitarians of our time, rightly says that Roe Vs. Wade “deformed” America. In 1983, the great Ronald Reagan in his profound article, “Abortion and the Conscience of the Nation,” stated:

“Our nationwide policy of abortion-on-demand through all nine months of pregnancy was neither voted for by our people nor enacted by our legislators - not a single state had such unrestricted abortion before the Supreme Court decreed it to be national policy in 1973...“Make no mistake, abortion-on-demand is not a right granted by the Constitution. No serious scholar, including one disposed to agree with the Court’s result, has argued that the framers of the Constitution intended to create such a right... Nowhere do the plain words of the Constitution even hint at a ‘right’ so sweeping as to permit abortion up to the time the child is ready to be born. Yet that is what the Court ruled.”(2)

Reagan’s entire article is worth reading; you can find it easily online. Such an easy, simple decision - no vote of the people, no legislative law, no Constitutional intent - with such profound results. One would think more Presidents, at least so-called pro-life conservatives, would have been more vocal regarding the decision. Only President Trump, the most pro-life President in history, has attended the annual pro-life rally in D.C.

“Donald Trump became the first US president to attend America's largest annual anti-abortion rally.

“He addressed thousands of protesters at the March for Life near the U.S. Capitol while his impeachment trial was ongoing.

“President Trump said: ‘We're here for a very simple reason: to defend the right of every child, born and unborn, to fulfill their God-given potential.’

“The annual demonstration first began in 1974 - a year after the U.S. Supreme Court legalized abortion in Roe v Wade.

“Until now no president had ever attended the march, which takes place just steps from the White House, though previous Republican presidents, including George W. Bush and Ronald Reagan, have addressed the group remotely.”(3)

Liberty University hosted Dr. Alveda King at Convocation Friday, Jan. 17, 2020, to discuss several topics. Her personal experiences make her comments even more meaningful.

“The niece of the late Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., Alveda King, discussed her journey from having multiple abortions and voting as a Democrat for decades, to eventually being coined as ‘the Conservative King,’ and a pro-life figure. After her conversion to Christianity in 1983, she now firmly stands for the protection of people throughout their entire lives, starting at conception and ending at death, which is something she calls ‘womb to tomb.’

“‘What’s interesting is that my mom wanted to abort me in 1950 because she was a college student,’ Alveda King said. ‘Abortion was illegal, but this exploratory procedure is what she wanted.’

“According to Alveda King, her mother was persuaded by her grandfather to keep her baby after he described a dream he had several years prior, which described what the baby would look like. Alveda King claims this interaction to be a ‘prophetic ultrasound,’ though she did not link it to her pro-life stance until many years later.

“‘I didn’t know then that I was born into the pro-life movement,’ Alveda King said. ‘God called me away from my liberal living. I had two abortions, a miscarriage, divorce, I was just living in the world. In 1983, God said that he wanted me to give my testimony. So I became a voice for life in 1983 when I was born-again, but I had been rescued in the womb, and I didn’t know it.’” (4)

And finally, the late, and very esteemed Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia stated, after Planned Parenthood vs Casey in 1992:

“The States may, if they wish, permit abortion on demand, but the Constitution does not require them to do so. The permissibility of abortion, and the limitations upon it, are to be resolved like most important questions in our democracy: by citizens trying to persuade one another and then voting…

“Roe fanned into life an issue that has inflamed our national politics in general, and has obscured with its smoke the selection of Justices to this Court in particular, ever since. And by keeping us in the abortion umpiring business, it is the perpetuation of that disruption, rather than any pax Roeana, that the Court’s new majority decrees.”(5)

Pax Roeana is a twist of the phrase “Pax Romana,” which means “Roman Peace” and refers to a roughly 200-year period of peace during Roman rule. His play on words is meant to emphasize the incredible turmoil the Court’s rulings on abortion have created. Later, in a 2010 speech at the University of Richmond, Justice Scalia stated his scorn for the inappropriate abuses of the Court:

“But some of the liberties the Supreme Court has found to be protected by that word - liberty - nobody thought constituted a liberty when the 14th Amendment was adopted. Abortion? It was criminal in all states.”(6)

Indeed.

Finally, God had something to say about life in the womb:

“You formed my innermost being, shaping my delicate inside and my intricate outside, and wove them all together in my mother’s womb. I thank You, God, for making me so mysteriously complex! Everything You do is marvelously breathtaking. It simply amazes me to think about it! How thoroughly You know me, Lord! You even formed every bone in my body when You created (raqam - ‘to variegate colors; embroider; needlework; fabricate; to be skillfully wrought’) me in the secret place; carefully, skillfully You shaped me from nothing to something. You saw who You created me to be before I became me! Before I’d ever seen the light of day, the number of days You planned for me were already recorded in Your book. Every single moment You are thinking of me! How precious and wonderful to consider that You cherish me constantly in Your every thought! O God, Your desires toward me are more than the grains of sand on every shore! When I awake each morning, You’re still with me.” (Psalm 139:13-17; TPT)

Let’s pray that the Court gets it right ...

Pray with me:

Father, You formed us in our mother’s womb, weaving us into the person You wanted and needed. You chose our purpose, and while we were being formed wove into us the gifts and abilities we would need to accomplish that purpose (Galatians 1:15). You filled John with Your Spirit while he was still in the womb (Luke 1:15). He leaped for joy in his mother’s womb when Mary, pregnant with Christ, entered the room (Luke 1:41). Fetuses that are not yet human beings are not filled with Your Spirit and don’t leap for joy. John was obviously already a person. Paul’s destiny and identity were shaped while still in his mother’s womb (Galatians 1:15).

Forgive America, Father, for killing our children. Today, we join with the blood of 60 million babies, crying out to You for justice. Please end America’s covenant with death (Isaiah 28:15-18). Help us this day, Father, end the shedding of innocent blood in our land.

Move on enough Supreme Court Justices to give life a victory today. [5 of the 9, a simple majority, must vote for life.] Peel back any veil blinding them to truth. Enable them to see through the maze of twisted and tangled legal arguments, the layers of what-ifs and wherefores. Show the insidiousness and lunacy of finding the right to kill babies in the word “privacy.” How simple this decision should be! The framers of the Constitution would be shocked and horrified at what we have done with their words. Awaken the conscience of our nation, and start with 5 Justices.

Our decree:

We decree that life and decency will prevail in the United States of America.