Dr. Patrick Lee

Roe v Wade: Unconstitutional and Unjust

The Supreme Court, in the Dobbs v Jackson case, will soon decide whether or not to reverse Roe v Wade, the case that declared that a woman has a Constitutional right to abortion. Roe argued that such a right is implicit in the Constitution. But nowhere in the Constitution is abortion mentioned, nor is it peripheral to any other right specifically enumerated. Moreover, even if (contrary to fact) the Constitution did imply there was such a right, the State would have a compelling interest to restrict that right (that is, have laws against abortion) to protect human life. The State may—indeed, must—restrict other liberties to protect fundamental rights, including the right to life.  In addition to misinterpreting the Constitution, Roe v Wade is massively and egregiously unjust. Pre-Civil War apologists of slavery—including the Supreme Court in the infamous Dred Scott v Sandford case—denied the equal dignity of a whole class of human beings, arguing that Black human beings were non-persons. In much the same way, Roe v Wade relegated a whole class of human beings—unborn human beings—to the status of sub-personal objects, objects that can now legally be ripped to shreds and tossed into a trash can. But