Life at Conception Act
Click here to read about the "Life at Conception Act":
Working from what the Supreme Court ruled in Roe, pro-life lawmakers can pass a Life at Conception Act and end abortion by using the Constitution instead of amending it.Thanks to Father Martin Fox of the blog Bonfire of the Vanities, who is also involved with the National Pro-Life Alliance, for alerting me to this piece of legislation.
Therefore, a simple majority vote is all that is needed to pass a Life at Conception Act as opposed to the two-thirds required to add a Constitutional amendment.
When the Supreme Court handed down its now-infamous Roe v. Wade decision, it did so based on a new, previously undefined "right of privacy" which it "discovered" in so-called "emanations" of "penumbrae" of the Constitution.
Of course, as constitutional law it was a disaster. But never once did the Supreme Court declare abortion itself to be a Constitutional right.
Instead the Supreme Court said:
"We need not resolve the difficult question of when life begins. . . the judiciary at this point in the development of man's knowledge, is not in a position to speculate as to the answer."
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Then the High Court made a key admission:
"If this suggestion of personhood is established, the appellant's case [i.e. "Roe" who sought the abortion], of course, collapses, for the fetus' right to life is then guaranteed by the [14th] Amendment."
That's exactly what a Life at Conception Act would do.
A Life at Conception Act changes the focus of the abortion debate. It takes the activist Supreme Court out of the equation and places responsibility squarely on the shoulders of the elected representatives who, unlike life term judges, must respond to grass-roots pressure.
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... continued efforts have led to ever-increasing support for a Life at Conception Act in Congress. Representative Duncan Hunter's (R-CA) Life at Conception Act (H.R. 552) was introduced in the House of Representatives on February 2 with a record 36 original cosponsors.
Members of the National Pro-Life Alliance are lobbying hard to gain a record number of cosponsors for a Life at Conception Act.
An up or down vote on a Life at Conception Act will put politicians on record either for or against ending abortion-on-demand.
Pro-lifers are urged to call (202) 224-3121 and insist that their Congressmen cosponsor Duncan Hunter's H.R. 552 today.
posted by Pro Ecclesia 12:48 AM
2 comments
2 Comments:
I've been hearing about this for years. It depends on Congressmen actually acting to have any effect. I consider it as little more than a fund-raising tool.
If such an act were to pass, it would be immediately challenged in court, and the question would end up back at SCOTUS, which is not the stated intention of this idea.
It's far more likely that abortion will be ended by Planned Parenthood v. North Dakota.
I've been hearing about this for years. It depends on Congressmen actually acting to have any effect. I consider it as little more than a fund-raising tool.
Agreed. That Life at Conception act, even if they had the guts to pass it, wouldn't work. Those pushing it falsely assume a) that one or more pro-Roe justices would recognize the Congress' right to decide when life begins and b) that one or more pro-Roe justices, even assuming that, would have such reverence for Harry Blackmun's reasoning that they'd reverse Roe based on that. Considering that even Ruth Bader Ginsburg disagrees with the reasoning behind Roe that is quite dubious indeed (IIRC, she "finds" a right to abortion in the equal protection clause — which is completely and totally whacked, BTW).
It's far more likely that abortion will be ended by Planned Parenthood v. North Dakota.
Assuming it doesn't keep a fifth potential anti-Roe justice off the Court. Note well: it isn't mainly getting the Democrats set in opposition we have to worry about but rather keeping pro-choice Republican senators on the reservation. The sad fact is that there are not fifty pro-life Republicans in the senate, so we really do need at least some pro-choice GOPers to get justices confirmed even without the filibuster being used.
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