From Lewrockwell.com…By Andrew Napolitano “The fetus has an interest in having a life.”–Supreme Court Justice Samuel A. Alito Jr., Dec. 1, 2021 Last week’s oral argument in the Supreme Court about abortion was both humdrum and arcane. Humdrum because we already knew where the nine justices stand on the morality of abortion. Arcane because the questions and answers were largely not about abortion, but about stare decisis, the legal doctrine that calls for settled law not to be lightly disturbed. What brought this about? Mississippi has enacted into law a statute that prohibits abortions after the 15th week of pregnancy. That statute directly conflicts with two major Supreme Court opinions on abortion, Roe v. Wade and Planned Parenthood v. Casey. The 1973 Roe decision establishes a trimester system during which the state’s interest in protecting the life of the baby in the womb does not come into being until the third trimester of pregnancy. More importantly, Roe holds that the states may not ban abortions prior to fetal viability, roughly at the end of the first trimester, around 23 weeks. The Casey opinion, 19 years after Roe and with a largely different membership in the court, upheld Roe’s no-abortions-until-viability standard…
Tag: Lew Rockwell
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6b5fj0eR3sg] [youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ecNHl_qx8QE]
