McCOMB — Last Friday’s rejection by the U.S. Supreme Court of the 1973 Roe v. Wade ruling that legalized abortion nationwide deserves all the attention it’s been getting over the past few days.
Advocates for the unborn are overjoyed. Advocates for a woman’s ability to make her own medical decision are dismayed.
Some states, like Mississippi, will quickly make most or all abortions illegal. Other states, typically in the Northeast or along the West Coast, will continue to permit them.
The fuss over the 5-4 ruling has been building for weeks, ever since the Politico website got hold of a draft of the ruling and published it well in advance of the final version’s release.
A few thoughts on the ruling:
nIt is an inescapable fact that an abortion involves the death of an innocent person. But it is also inescapable that many pro-life people tend to worry more about the rights of unborn children than of children who are born into desperate straits. With several thousand more children to be born in Mississippi each year, this thinking must change. More children, mothers and families will need help. State government must play a role; to ignore this is immoral.
nFor decades, there has been a fascinating divide about state-sanctioned death. Most people who support abortion rights oppose the death penalty. And vice versa. It’s rare to talk to someone who supports both actions or opposes both of them.
It is another inescapable fact that someone sentenced to death has been found guilty in a courtroom of a horrible crime, usually murder. It’s easy, and very understandable, to say that such a person does not deserve to live. But that is not too far from the position of those defending abortion as a woman’s right to decide her own medical issues. Either all life is sacred or it is not.
A separate concern about the death penalty is that one day, science will prove that a jury got it wrong — and an innocent person got killed.
nWhile the Supreme Court’s ruling is important because it overturned a very divisive ruling, a broader perspective may help those who disagree with it. And that is: Last week’s ruling will have nowhere near the impact on America as did the court’s 1954 school desegregation case.
The Brown v. Board of Education ruling that “separate but equal” schools were inherently unequal upended a century of traditions, especially in Southern states. Resistance was fierce to the idea of students of different races attending school together, not to mention the next logical step of integrating other public spaces like bus stations and restaurant counters.
When the Supreme Court followed up with an “integrate schools right now” ruling in 1969, it led directly to the establishment of all-white private schools in Southern states.
A great irony is that a lot of people who have grumbled for decades about the Supreme Court are pretty pleased with its most recent ruling. Even in the judicial branch, the political pendulum does swing back and forth.
- Jack Ryan is editor and publisher of the Enterprise-Journal in McComb. Contact him at publisher@enterprise-journal.com.
