Roe v. Reason
Richard Stith, J.D., Ph.D.
On 22 January 1973, in Roe v. Wade, the United States Supreme Court declared that an unborn
child enjoys no constitutional protection before he or she emerges from the womb. Even after
viability, the fetus in utero counts only as a "potentiality of human life," and can therefore be
destroyed for broadly defined maternal health reasons, amounting virtually to abortion on
request, right up to birth.i Location – in or out of the womb – thus determined whether actual
human life existed and was worthy of protection under the Roe v. Wade ruling.
Many constitutional scholars (on both sides of the abortion issue) have criticized Roe for having
no basis in our Constitution.ii The Court, they say, just invented the right to abortion in an act of
judicial activism. This essay, however, will focus not on the flaws in Roe's legal arguments, but
rather on its deeply arbitrary description of human development.
Let's take a close look at Roe's holding and at the key non-legal judgment with which the Court
backs it up. Here's an excerpt from Roe's concluding summary:
"For the stage subsequent to viability, the State in promoting its interest in
the potentiality of human life may, if it chooses, regulate and even
proscribe abortion, except where it is necessary, in appropriate medical
judgment, for the preservation of the life or health of the mother"iii
(emphasis added).
Note that the Court is here saying that a state need not provide any protection for an unborn child
who is fully viable (able to survive outside his or her mother's womb). There's no protection at
all unless the state "chooses" to regulate late-term abortion. And even if it does choose to
regulate post-viability abortion, a state still must allow abortions to preserve the "health" (not
just the life) of the mother.
Roe goes on to refer us to its companion case, entitled Doe v. Bolton, for the Court's definition of
"health," which includes: "all factors – physical, emotional, psychological, familial, and the
woman's age – relevant to the well-being of the patient."iv A woman obtaining a divorce in her
eighth month of pregnancy, for example, might (as a newly single person) wish to abort her child
for "familial" reasons. Indeed, since there can be hardly any sort of voluntary abortion that does
not involve one or more of these broad factors, Roe v. Wade can be summarized as mandating a
right to abortion at any time during pregnancy, right up to birth.
How could the U.S. Supreme Court leave viable unborn children with virtually no possibility of
legal protection? Its reason is found in the passage above: Even just before birth, the child is
supposedly only the "potentiality of human life." Our highest court claims not to know that any
unborn child is actually human and alive. This judgment doesn't come from the Constitution or
the law; the Court is making a non-legal claim about the nature of human development. Roe
holds that a change in location, passage through the birth canal, can turn a potential human being
into an actual human being. An unborn child overdue at nine and one-half months is considered
only a potentiality, while a cousin at seven months is an actual human life if he or she emerges
prematurely from the womb. An abortionist must be very careful to make sure every child he
removes from the womb is dead beforehand. If he does anything that causes the child's death a
moment after it comes out, he may be guilty of murder.
But this makes no sense. What something is does not depend on where it is. How something is
perceived may change with location, but not what it is in itself. We can relate to a baby in many
new ways (holding, gazing, etc.) after it is born, but we know it is the same being that was alive
and kicking in its mother's womb just a short time before. The Court didn't just reason poorly in
Roe. It abandoned reason altogether, in favor of a wholly arbitrary stipulation of when actual
human life must be considered to begin.
We might not mind the Supreme Court drawing a willful line in some minor procedural area of
law. But Roe concerned the most fundamental of all issues, the question of who belongs to the
human community. A plausible concept of "who counts" as a human being is the necessary
starting point for all legal (as well as all ethical) reasoning.
Here's an analogy: I would see as rational, though I would disagree with, someone who argued
that the death penalty is permissible because the interests of felons are outweighed by the
interests of society. But I would be dumbfounded by someone who claimed that once the
accused is convicted of a heinous crime, he or she ceases to be actually alive or human, and so
can be destroyed without a qualm. To make such an argument would be not so much to reason
poorly as to give up on reason entirely, leaving us nothing more to say to each other. How can
we reason together if the clearest of starting points is openly denied?
Thus one fundamental reason that Roe v. Wade must be overturned is just this: It commits our
nation to a wholly irrational definition of who we are, and so of our human dignity and rights.
For example, supporters of abortion naturally want to defend Roe. But none has ever been able
to explain how passage through the birth canal can bring life and humanity magically into
existence. So they sometimes urge unthinking obedience to the Supreme Court – perhaps
claiming there is no right answer as to whether a fetus is alive or human, so Roe's answer is as
good as any. Of course, they then can have no objection in principle if the Court defines away
another group's legal rights (say, the right to life of those with serious mental disabilities). Or,
even more ominously, pro-choice thinkers may agree with us that there is no difference in the
child in and out of the womb but then go on to argue, in an extension of Roe, that there is thus
nothing inherently wrong with post-natal infanticide. (This is the position of Princeton professor
Peter Singer,v and apparently of every academic philosopher who supports Roe's right to
abortion throughout pregnancy.vi) I doubt that many would come up with such frightening
contentions if they did not feel compelled to defend the indefensible – i.e., to defend Roe v.
Wade.
If the most fundamental of all issues—who belongs to the human community—is to be settled by
an unreasoned diktat, it's no wonder people have stopped talking to each other about lesser
matters. If we can't agree that a child of human parents who is active in the womb is human and
alive, how can we trust each other's good faith concerning less obvious and important truths?
In line with Roe v. Wade, many today aver that factual as well as value judgments are just
stipulations and so need not be checked against reality. This is an excuse for indifference to
others' views. As a result, conversation comes to seem hopeless. Many become discouraged
with logical, clarifying discourse and lapse into apathy. If Roe has not by itself caused this
breakdown of public reason, it certainly has contributed mightily to the decline of civil debate in
our nation—and not just on abortion. Our Catholic tradition, to the contrary, insists upon reason
as an essential foundation for the rule of law.
If Roe v. Wade is overturned by a future Supreme Court, the abortion debate will not end.
Indeed, it will only then begin. We cannot be certain that the pro-life side will win. But at least
then we can insist that pro-choice legislators explain why a heartbeat doesn't prove life exists at
three weeks gestation, and explain what species our unborn babies belong to if they are not
human. We can ask for a reasoned response to our strongest non-religious argument: "Weren't
you yourself once a human fetus, and a human embryo before that? Aren't you the same
organism, the same being, as you were at conception—just more developed?"
Yet I think there are reasons to hope that we will eventually convince America to provide
substantial legal protection for all unborn children, if the Supreme Court ever backs off its
irrational claim that location (in versus out of the womb) can determine human being and
dignity. Most states now treat the killing of an unborn child as a kind of homicide, if committed
without his or her mother's permission. (Such laws have been held constitutional because Roe
does not privilege involuntary abortions, those done without maternal consent.) Some of these
states do not protect the first few weeks of life, but many do. In Minnesota, for example,
someone convicted of intentionally killing a just-conceived human embryo, by attacking its
mother, can be sentenced to life in prison for "murder of an unborn child."vii And in 2004, the
very similar federal Unborn Victims of Violence Act became law, as a response to the tragic
killing of Laci Peterson and her unborn child, Conner. That law provides that an unborn child at
every point in its development gets the same federal protection as its mother. We may thus hope
that, if the Court gives them a voice, the American people will open their hearts and minds and
declare every single human being worthy of equal protection.
Unfortunately, the reasonableness of the American people and of our legislatures has not yet
reached all our courts. Excessively influenced by Roe, some state courts have persisted in
holding that an unborn child cannot be a victim of homicide, even when killed without his or her
mother's consent. And of course, the U.S. Supreme Court has not backed off Roe. Indeed, in the
year 2000, it extended Roe's permission to kill. While the first footnote in Roe v. Wade had
indicated that the Court was not granting a right to abortion during the birth process itself, in
Stenberg v. Carhart the Supreme Court built on Roe to allow abortion even during the delivery
of a child (i.e., abortion after a "partial birth" in which the child is pulled out feet first, right up to
its neck, before its brains are suctioned out while its head still lies inside the womb).viii
The only real hope for life and justice in our nation lies in the replacement of the Carhart
majority with men and women willing to overturn Roe rather than to extend it. Yet, ironically,
Carhart itself can give us a measure of confidence that reason will win out in the end. For
Carhart ridicules Roe's idea that location can matter when deciding who deserves legal
protection.
The majority in the Carhart case made it quite clear that the fact (in a partial-birth abortion) that
the unborn child is four-fifths outside the womb when it is killed makes no difference
whatsoever.ix It's still the same being in reality, regardless of whether it's entirely inside or
mostly outside. The change in location doesn't matter. Judge Richard Posner, in a case affirmed
by Carhart, put the matter very clearly:
"From the standpoint of the fetus, and, I should think, of any rational person, it
makes no difference whether, when the skull is crushed, the fetus is entirely within
the uterus or its feet are outside the uterus. ...
No reason of policy or morality that would allow the one would forbid the
other."x
Picking up on Posner's argument, Justices Ruth Bader Ginsberg and John Paul Stevens argue
that any prohibition of partial-birth abortion is (in their words) "simply irrational" because it is
no more (again in their own words) "brutal," "gruesome," "cruel" and "painful"xi than the sort of
late-pregnancy abortion already approved by Roe, where the still-hidden fetus is dismembered
alive, with its limbs and then its body pulled out piece by piece before its head is finally
crushed.xii In other words, the two justices say it is irrational for a state to regard a fetus as more
worthy of legal protection simply because it is nearly born, located outside the womb up to its
neck.
In claiming that partial-birth abortion is no more "brutal" or "painful" to the child than the
inside-the-womb abortion originally envisioned by Roe, these justices concede that Roe's
original sort of abortion is at least as brutal and painful as partial-birth abortion. In arguing that it
is "simply irrational" for the states to think a baby's location can matter, they implicitly concede
that Roe v. Wade itself was simply irrational in its reliance on location as a test of human
existence and dignity.
Roe abandoned reason in holding that some children can be cast out from the human community
and brutally killed. That is obvious from the text of Carhart, and from the irrational lengths to
which judges and others must go to defend the decision. May reason prevail, and soon.
Richard Stith teaches at Valparaiso University School of Law. In addition to his law degree, he
has a Ph.D. in Religious Ethics, both from Yale University. He serves on the board of directors of University Faculty for Life and is also on the board of Consistent Life.
Notes
i Roe v. Wade, 410 U.S. 113, 162, 164-65 (1973). Roe says the law may not require any maternal health reason,
even a very broad one, for abortion prior to viability.
ii On the pro-choice side, see e.g. John Hart Ely, "The Wages of Crying Wolf", 83 Yale Law Journal 920-49
(1973), Edward Lazarus, "The Lingering Problems of Roe v. Wade", Find Law's Writ, October 3, 2002, available at
writ.findlaw.com/lazarus/20021003.html, and Laurence H. Tribe, "Foreword: Toward a Model of Roles in the Due
Process of Life and Law," 87 Harvard Law Review 1-53 (1973).
iii 410 U.S. at 164.
iv Doe v. Bolton, 410 U.S. 179, 192 (1973).
v See e.g., Peter Singer, "Killing Babies Isn't Always Wrong", The Spectator, Sept. 16, 1995, at 20-22.
vi A thorough examination of pro-Roe philosophical arguments has shown that none finds anything inherently
wrong with killing newborn infants. Don Marquis, "Why Abortion is Immoral", 86 Journal of Philosophy 183, 195-
201 (1989).
vii State v. Merrill, 450 N.W.2d 318, 321 n.1 (Minn. 1990), cert. denied 496 U.S. 931(1990).
viii Stenberg v. Carhart, 530 U.S. 914 (2000).
ix 530 U.S. at 930-31.
x Hope Clinic v. Ryan, 195 F.3d 857, 879 (7th Circuit, 1999).
xi 530 U.S. at 946, 952.
xii 530 U.S. at 924-26, 938-46.
PROGRAM MODELS
Three decades after the Roe v. Wade decision, Americans – including even many lawyers –
remain totally unaware of what the Supreme Court actually ruled. Most Americans still do not
realize how extreme and how far removed from the Constitution and most Americans' values the
Roe abortion license is.
The Secretariat for Pro-Life Activities (www.usccb.org/prolife) and the National Committee for a
Human Life Amendment (www.nchla.org and www.endroe.org) have recently revamped their websites
to include everything you always wanted to know about Roe v. Wade and subsequent abortion
decisions, all the basic facts about abortion you want at your fingertips, and what you can do to
help defeat Roe v. Wade. Visit these sites regularly for frequent updates.
Sign up to receive new releases and action alerts by e-mail or fax from the National Committee
for a Human Life Amendment. Contact the Secretariat for Pro-Life Activities to be e-mailed the
biweekly "Life Issues Forum" column and news releases.
Display Second Look Project posters on parish and school bulletin boards. 11" x 17" posters can
be purchased from the Secretariat for Pro-Life Activities for $.75 each with quantity discounts.
Or download smaller versions at www.secondlookproject.org
Download and distribute Roe "Reality Check" postcards at www.secondlookproject.org or place them
as camera-ready ads in local papers. With your pastor's permission, you may also stock
downloaded Roe "Reality Check" postcards, and other suitable resources (flyers, articles,
newsletters) listed below in your parish vestibule rack.
Donate books listed under "Resources" to the parish and school library.
With your pastor's permission, place quotations from Supreme Court Justices and legal scholars
which critique Roe in your Sunday bulletin at least once a month.
Start a "singles," "seniors" or open-to-anyone book club at your parish or among your friends.
Meet weekly at a local coffee shop or restaurant to discuss one of the books listed in the
Resources section.
Essay contest topics:
1) If there really was a constitutional right to privacy broad enough to include paying a doctor to
kill one's unborn child, discuss what other acts such a "right to privacy" could include. Would
this freedom be good or bad for individuals? For society?
2) Find examples of misleading descriptions of Roe v. Wade in periodicals (such as, "legalized
abortion in the first three months of pregnancy"). Discuss why so few people know what Roe
(and its companion case, Doe v. Bolton) really mean? What can you and your friends do about it?
3) In Roe, the Supreme Court said that women should have a right to abortion because of the
problems they might face if states kept abortion illegal: "Maternity, or additional offspring, may
force upon the woman a distressful life and future. Psychological harm may be imminent. Mental
and physical health may be taxed by child care. There is also the distress, for all concerned,
associated with the unwanted child, and there is the problem of bringing a child into a family
already unable, psychologically and otherwise, to care for it." Is this an accurate view of
motherhood? Do these difficulties justify taking the life of an innocent human being? Is the
Court's reasoning equally applicable to born children, and a basis for justifying infanticide or
abandonment? Would adoption eliminate these difficulties for the mother?
RESOURCES
Teaching Documents
The Gospel of Life. Pope John Paul II, USCCB: Washington, D.C., 1995 ($5.95). Available at
http://www.usccb.org/prolife/tdocs/evangel/evangeli.htm.
Living the Gospel of Life: A Challenge to American Catholics. Statement of the U.S. Catholic
Bishops: USCCB, Washington, D.C.,1998 ($2.95). Available at
http://www.usccb.org/prolife/gospel.htm.
Pastoral Plan for Pro-Life Activities. Statement of the U.S. Catholic Bishops, USCCB:
Washington, D.C., 2001 ($1.95). Available at http://www.usccb.org/prolife/pastoralplan.htm.
Print
Books
The Catholic Citizen: Debating the Issues of Justice. Kenneth D. Whitehead (ed.). South Bend,
Ind.: St. Augustine's Press, 2004 ($17).
Men in Black: How the Supreme Court Is Destroying America. Mark R. Levin. Washington,
D.C.: Regnery Publishing, Inc. ($18.45 on Amazon.com).
Natural Rights and the Right to Choose. Hadley Arkes, Cambridge, United Kingdom:
Cambridge University Press, 2002.
Rights Talk: The Impoverishment of Political Discourse. Mary Ann Glendon, New York: The
Free Press, 1991.
Scholarly Articles and Books Criticizing Roe
Dellapenna, Joseph A., "Nor Piety Nor Wit: The Supreme Court on Abortion," Columbia Human
Rights Law Review 6 (1974-75): 379-413.
Destro, Robert A. "Abortion and the Constitution: The Need for a Life-Protective Amendment,"
California Law Review 63 (1975): 1250-1351.
Ely, John Hart, "The Wages of Crying Wolf: A Comment on Roe v. Wade," Yale Law Journal 82
(1973): 920-49.
Epstein, Richard A., "Substantive Due Process by Any Other Name: The Abortion Cases,"
Supreme Court Review (1973): 159-95.
King, Patricia A., "The Juridical Status of the Fetus: A Proposal for Legal Protection of the
Unborn," Michigan Law Review 77 (1979): 1647-87.
Lazarus, Edward. "The Lingering Problems with Roe v. Wade, and Why the Recent Senate
Hearings on Michael McConnell's Nomination Only Underlined Them," 3 Oct. 2002. Find
Law's Legal Commentary. Find Law. 7 April 2004,
http://writ.findlaw.com/lazarus/20021003.html.
Noonan, John T., Jr. "Abortion 1985," Respect Life Program (1985): 6-11.
Paulsen, Michael Stokes, "The Worst Constitutional Decision of All Time." Notre Dame Law
Review 78 (2003): 995-1043.
Posner, Richard A., "The Uncertain Protection of Privacy by the Supreme Court." Supreme
Court Review (1979): 173-216.
Tribe, Laurence H., "Foreword: Toward a Model of Roles in the Due Process of Life and Law,"
Harvard Law Review 87 (1973): 1-53.
Wittes, Benjamin. "Letting go of Roe." Atlantic Monthly (Jan-Feb 2005): 48-53.
Coercing Virtue: The Worldwide Rule of Judges. Robert H. Bork. Washington, D.C.: AEI Press,
2003.
The Morality of Consent. Alexander M. Bickel. New Haven: Yale (1975).
The Role of the Supreme Court in American Government. Archibald Cox. New York: Oxford,
1976.
Other
9 Months and The Supreme Court Says. Two posters produced by the Second Look Project. See
www.secondlookproject.com.
The Door Opens to Infanticide. Secretariat for Pro-Life Activities, USCCB: Washington, D.C.,
2000 ($7/100).
Faithful Citizenship: A Catholic Call to Political Responsibility, USCCB Administrative
Committee. A variety of resources, including a video, are available at
http://www.usccb.org/faithfulcitizenship/introduction.html.
Life Insight. Newsletter, Secretariat for Pro-Life Activities, Washington, D.C. Available at
http://www.usccb.org/prolife/publicat/lifeinsight/index.htm.
Roe "Reality Check" postcards. Downloadable at http://www.usccb.org/prolife/realitycheck.htm.
"Ten Legal Reasons to Reject Roe," Susan E. Wills, Esq. Reprint of 2003 Respect Life article, 4
pp. (#0347. $.40 each, quantity discounts). Available from the Secretariat for Pro-Life Activities.
Also available at http://www.usccb.org/prolife/programs/rlp/03wills.htm.
CD-ROM: Celebrating Life 1972-2002. USCCB: Washington, D.C., 2002 ($9.95).
Internet
Roe v. Wade and decisions of the U.S. Supreme Court from 1893 can be found at
http://www.findlaw.com/10fedgov/judicial/supreme_court/index.html.
National Committee for a Human Life Amendment (public policy and grassroots mobilization
experts): www.nchla.org and www.endroe.org. Includes fact sheets, briefing statements, action
alerts, news releases, vote tracking and more. Find all materials related to the "End the Roe
Litmus Test Campaign, including easy link to contact your Senators.
National Right to Life Committee: www.nrlc.org.
Secretariat for Pro-Life Activities, U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops:
www.usccb.org/prolife. Visit new section on "Roe v. Wade and Basic Abortion Facts."
The Second Look Project (of the USCCB Secretariat for Pro-Life Activities) features basic
abortion facts, fetal development timeline with photos and downloadable posters, Roe "Reality Checks" postcards, and radio ads. Visit www.secondlookproject.org.