Dobbs v. Jackson at the Supreme Court

Abortion in the Supreme Court!

On December 1, 2021, the Supreme Court of the United States {SCOTUS} will hear arguments in the case of Thomas E. Dobbs, State Health Officer of the Mississippi Department of Health v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization. This case has traveled from the state of Mississippi to the capitol court of the land in an effort to allow Mississippi to limit abortions within its boundaries. This case flies in the face of the current law of the land established by Roe v. Wade on January 22, 1973, in that it says there is no right to an abortion (in the State of Mississippi) beyond 15 weeks of gestation.

What is Dobbs v. Jackson?

Well, if you ask someone who believes in the dignity of the human person from conception to natural death, it is a step towards the end of the legal, dangerous, and prolific murder, called abortion, in the United States of America. It could overturn the decision made, in Roe v. Wade, that claims an abortion is within the constitutional rights of a woman’s right to privacy. If you ask abortion proponents across the world, it is a heinous injustice that limits women’s “healthcare” access.

Mississippi’s Dobbs v. Jackson challenges the idea that there is a “right” to abortion when the child has a heartbeat and can feel pain. Science has told us that the cells of the developing heart are visible as early as 22 days post fertilization (conception). Fetal brain activity can be detected as early as 6 weeks. Science has also shown us that a child can hear, feel, move, and react to stimulus, including pain, in the womb by 10 weeks gestation.

However, it is really a challenge to the constitutionality of killing a human being in utero after 15 weeks gestation. A challenge to the “right” of a mother to kill her child after the first trimester (12 weeks) when a fetus (latin for “little one”) has a heartbeat and can feel pain. And it could send abortion legislation back to individual states, many that have “trigger” laws that will be enforceable when that happens. A trigger law is one that is on the books, but is dormant or impotent as long as Roe stands as the law of the land.

Roe V. Wade

Roe v. Wade took away the ability of individual states to legislate abortion as a practice within their boundaries. Texas did not have legal abortion, and Texas is where Roe originated. Several states had legalized abortion under certain circumstances such as rape, incest, or risk to the mother’s life (if the child was carried to term). Colorado, California, Oregon and North Carolina all had decriminalized abortion for those reasons. Hawaii, in 1970, became the first state to allow women to seek an abortion for any reason. When Roe v. Wade was decided by the 1973 court, all states had to decriminalize abortion.

The specifics of their ruling limited abortion somewhat, indicating that specific “trimesters” were subject to particular abortion practices and that “potentiality” could be considered. Only the first trimester abortions (first 12 weeks) were permitted without in all 50 states under the Roe decision. “To specify when the state’s interests emerge, the Court divided pregnancy into twelve-week trimesters. In the first trimester, the state cannot regulate abortion or prevent a woman’s access to it. It can only require that abortions be performed by a licensed physician and under medically safe conditions.” (Law.jrank.org)

It is important to note that abortionists (wrongly noted as “safe” according to one article in Slate) were the ones prosecuted, although the mothers seeking abortions were not treated compassionately. In a Post-Roe time, I hope many will recognize that the abortion provider is the criminal, while the mother and her preborn child are the victims.

Why Now?

The State of Mississippi, through HB1510, the Gestational Age Act, has recognized the humanity of the preborn. Passed in 2018, the law was challenged through the courts as “Dobbs v. Jackson” and is now going to be argued in front of SCOTUS. December 1, 2021, could be the day that those arguments reach the ears of intelligent, compassionate Justices who are also willing to recognize the humanity of the preborn.

Science has also made huge strides since the decision of Roe v. Wade, which did leave open the possibility that it could be revisited. The concurring Justices indicated that the “beginning of life” could not be determined scientifically, stating, “In areas other than criminal abortion, the law has been reluctant to endorse any theory that life, as we recognize it, begins before [live] birth or to accord legal rights to the unborn except in narrowly defined situations and except when the rights are contingent upon [live] birth.” (Roe v. Wade, Cornell.edu)

We now know, through ultrasounds, fetal surgery to correct congenital defects, the success of premature births (live birth before 40 weeks gestation, the earliest surviving baby born at 21 weeks gestation), and other medical and scientific advances, that the preborn child is indeed alive, is most definitely a genetic human, and should be, MUST be, accorded the same rights as all other humans: the Right to Life.

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Categorized as Abortion

By amethystkat

There is only one author/administrator unless otherwise noted. I am a female, a wife, bonus mom, daughter, aunt, friend, teacher, and Roman Catholic. I do not speak for all women, just as other women and self-proclaimed feminists do not speak for me. Although a Catholic, I do not presume to speak in an official capacity for the Catholic Church as some so-called Catholics in government dare to do. I reserve the right to remove comments with profanity or degrading personal attacks. Otherwise, all comments, whether they agree or disagree with the post(s).