{"id":258116,"date":"2021-12-01T10:45:27","date_gmt":"2021-12-01T16:45:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.liveaction.org\/news\/?p=258116"},"modified":"2021-12-02T14:11:20","modified_gmt":"2021-12-02T20:11:20","slug":"irrefutable-case-rights-preborn-human-beings","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/irrefutable-case-rights-preborn-human-beings\/","title":{"rendered":"The irrefutable case for the rights of preborn human beings"},"content":{"rendered":"
<\/div>

Disclaimer: The opinions expressed in this guest post are solely those of the author and are not necessarily reflective of Live Action or Live Action News.<\/i><\/p>\n

Equality.\u00a0<\/span>That is the main object of <\/span>the pro-life movement<\/span><\/a>, which was <\/span>founded<\/span><\/a> as a human rights movement dedicated to securing equal rights for preborn humans. It was formed in response to 20<\/span>th<\/span>-century efforts to repeal the nationwide bans on elective abortion that protected the preborn for generations in the United States.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Pennsylvania Congressman Thaddeus Stevens in his 1867 speech advocating for equal rights for African-Americans said, “every man, no matter what his race or color; every earthly being who has an immortal soul, has an equal right to justice, honesty, and fair play with every other man; and the law should secure him these rights.”\u00a0To borrow from this\u00a0logic<\/a>,\u00a0<\/span>every human, no matter what their place in this world \u2014 inside the womb or outside; every earthly being who has an immortal soul, has an equal right to justice, honesty, and fair play with every other human; and the law should secure them these rights. <\/span><\/p>\n

The same law which protects a born human should protect a preborn human. The <\/span>same law<\/span><\/a> which protects a preborn human from a violent or homicidal act by their father or a stranger should protect a preborn human from such conduct by their mother or a doctor. Such is the law of God, such is the law of the Fourteenth Amendment, and such ought to be the law crafted by the United States Supreme Court in <\/span>Dobbs v. Jackson Women\u2019s Health Organization<\/span><\/em>.<\/span><\/p>\n

The case for fetal rights is as simple as it is undeniable.<\/span><\/p>\n

First, as evinced by <\/span>scientific journals<\/span><\/a>, <\/span>thousands of pro-choice biologists<\/span><\/a>, and <\/span>countless abortion advocates<\/span><\/a>\u00a0\u2014 developing human zygotes, embryos, and fetuses are living humans.<\/span><\/p>\n

Second, in the law, \u201c<\/span>person<\/span><\/a>\u201d refers to all \u201c<\/span>natural persons<\/span><\/a>\u201d (which entail all living humans) and all \u201c<\/span>artificial persons<\/span><\/a>\u201d (which entail all corporations and entities deemed to be deserving of rights as part of a legal fiction).<\/span><\/p>\n

Finally, the Fourteenth Amendment\u2019s guarantee of <\/span>equal legal protections<\/span><\/a> to all persons \u2014 which the amendment\u2019s ratifiers <\/span>declared<\/span><\/a> was protective of all living humans regardless of any distinction \u2014 was not only understood to include preborn humans <\/span>at the time of its passage<\/span><\/a>, but it must be interpreted to include them today since there is <\/span>no dispute<\/span><\/a> on the preborn\u2019s status as human.<\/span><\/p>\n

The Court in <\/span>Roe v. Wade <\/span><\/i>held that the recognition of fetal rights would cause the case for abortion rights to <\/span>\u201ccollapse\u201d<\/span><\/a>; in <\/span>subsequent cases<\/span><\/a>, justices who formed <\/span>Roe<\/span><\/i>\u2019s majority further confirmed that if the humanity of the preborn were established, \u201cthe permissibility of terminating the life of a fetus could scarcely be left to the will of the state legislatures\u201d because fetal rights would then be guaranteed by the Fourteenth Amendment.<\/span><\/p>\n

READ:\u00a0\u2018Pro-birth\u2019: Without the right to life, there can be no other rights<\/a><\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

Given this, why do so few in the conservative legal movement advance this argument? Why is it not the subject of even one of the seventeen pieces published in <\/span>National Review<\/span><\/i>\u2019s special issue <\/span>\u201cEnd <\/span>Roe<\/span><\/i>\u201d<\/span><\/a>? Why did Princeton\u2019s professor Robert George\u2019s <\/span>analysis<\/span><\/a> of the eighty briefs filed in support of Mississippi\u2019s abortion ban reveal that only one-fifth of the briefs argued for fetal rights?<\/span><\/p>\n

Mary Ziegler, a leading expert on the legal debate about abortion in the U.S., <\/span>suggests<\/span><\/a> that leaders of the conservative legal movement believe they need to hide their true intentions until they can push for fetal rights in the future.<\/span><\/p>\n

The U.S. Supreme Court squarely asked the Nation if \u201call pre-viability prohibitions on elective abortions are unconstitutional\u201d. The honest answer from opponents of abortion access is: No, the Fourteenth Amendment\u2019s Equal Protection Clause guarantees that all humans, born and preborn, are deserving of equal protection under the law, so pre-viability prohibitions on elective abortions are not only constitutional but are required by the U.S. Constitution.<\/span><\/p>\n

Instead, the tepid and, quite frankly, dishonest answer from many of the briefs was: No, because abortion hurts women; No, because the <\/span>Roe <\/span><\/i>Court relied on a false history of abortion laws; No, because states continuously challenge <\/span>Roe<\/span><\/i>.<\/span><\/p>\n

It is paternalistic and condescending to suggest that a woman should not be able to have an abortion simply because it is bad for her; it is unrealistic to believe that the Court would overturn a 48-year-precedent that millions of Americans support on the basis that the <\/span>Roe <\/span><\/i>Court\u2019s original arguments were historically inaccurate; finally, it is ridiculous to suggest that a precedent should be overturned solely because states disagree with it. If numerous states had disagreed with <\/span>Brown v. Board <\/span><\/i>and continued to segregate people based on race, would the Court have been compelled to overturn its decision?<\/span><\/p>\n

This is all just noise.<\/span><\/p>\n

The signal of any effort to restrict abortion access is the protection of preborn humans \u2014 the object of securing equal rights for all humans, born and preborn. If the Court focuses on the noise, then abortion supporters will be bolstered in their claim that their opponents merely aim to control women. Instead, if the Court affirms fetal rights, then the reasonable part of our Nation will recognize permissive abortion laws for what they are: an unconstitutional infringement on the rights and equality of preborn humans.<\/span><\/p>\n

Steve Jacobs is the program director of Illinois Right to Life. He received his J.D. from the Northwestern University School of Law and his Ph.D. from the University of Chicago; his dissertation, \u201cBalancing Abortion Rights and Fetal Rights: A Mixed Methods Mediation of the U.S. Abortion Debate\u201d, focused on Americans\u2019 common ground in the national abortion controversy.<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n

\u201cLike\u201d Live Action News on Facebook<\/i><\/b><\/a>\u00a0for more pro-life news and commentary!<\/i><\/b><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Disclaimer: The opinions expressed in this guest post are solely those of the author and are not necessarily reflective of Live Action or Live Action News. Equality.\u00a0That is the main object of the pro-life movement, which was founded as a human rights movement dedicated to securing equal rights for preborn humans. It was formed in […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":852,"featured_media":227765,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false},"categories":[7077,3,9459],"tags":[10512,13663,2827,885,14457,96,144,197,14458],"yoast_head":"\nThe irrefutable case for the rights of preborn human beings<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"The signal of any effort to restrict abortion access is the protection of preborn humans \u2014 the object of securing equal rights for all humans....\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/irrefutable-case-rights-preborn-human-beings\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"The irrefutable case for the rights of preborn human beings\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"The signal of any effort to restrict abortion access is the protection of preborn humans \u2014 the object of securing equal rights for all humans....\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/irrefutable-case-rights-preborn-human-beings\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Live Action News\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/liveaction\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2021-12-01T16:45:27+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2021-12-02T20:11:20+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/07\/GettyImages-471234119-2-7-month-fetus-28-weeks.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1197\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"652\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Dr. Steve Jacobs, J.D., Ph.D.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@liveaction\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@liveaction\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Dr. Steve Jacobs, J.D., Ph.D.\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"5 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/irrefutable-case-rights-preborn-human-beings\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/irrefutable-case-rights-preborn-human-beings\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Dr. Steve Jacobs, J.D., Ph.D.\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/#\/schema\/person\/8304d97100a6399b05971e55663ddf20\"},\"headline\":\"The irrefutable case for the rights of preborn human beings\",\"datePublished\":\"2021-12-01T16:45:27+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2021-12-02T20:11:20+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/irrefutable-case-rights-preborn-human-beings\/\"},\"wordCount\":974,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/#organization\"},\"keywords\":[\"Dobbs v. 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