In 1857, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that a black slave by the name of Dred Scott was property - and as such he could be bought, sold and even killed by his owners. That court, by a 7-2 vote, claimed their decision was based on the U.S. Constitution since African American slaves weren’t citizens yet.
In 1973, the US Supreme Court ruled that pre-born human beings could be killed by abortion. By another 7-2 vote, that court also claimed that their decision was based on the U.S. Constitution - interpreting that a woman’s right to privacy allowed for the killing since the baby wasn’t a born citizen yet.
The evil of legally treating human beings as property through slavery was finally overcome years after the devastating and unconstitutional Dred Scott Court decision, though it took a civil war to protect the lives of our darker skinned fellow human beings.
Today’s evil of legally treating pre-born human beings as property will also hopefully end soon as well. Currently, many states are increasingly passing laws in an attempt to restore protection to our youngest sisters and brothers of the human race. The unconstitutionality of Roe will also hopefully soon be declared and replaced with protection for all human lives.
Though everyone in 1973 should have also known that the pre-born are human beings and that we were all their age at one time - today’s advanced scientific technology leaves absolutely no question regarding this. With their unique set of DNA and their own hearts beating by 18 days after conception, no women can rightly claim that this new separate life being nourished in her is simply a growth she can choose to remove, or property to discard.
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The Roe v. Wade court decision is in many ways even worse than the Dred Scott decision - especially when we consider the over 61 million intentional deaths of pre-born human beings resulting from it since 1973. All innocent human life has God-given value and deserves to be protected, This of course includes the life of the mother - and thankfully medical advancements make it unnecessary to intentionally abort - though in rare cases life-saving procedures for the mother do sometimes unintentionally result in the pre-born baby’s death. Though this is not intentional abortion, a “life of the mother exception” is included in all of the recently passed state legislation.
And when pre-born human lives are again legally protected in our nation, we all need to be ready to help care for women who find themselves with an unintended life depending on them. Indeed, we need to be doing so right now. While we realize that no life, whether planned for or not, can be guaranteed a lifetime where all needs are met, we need to strive to replace the mother’s fear of uncertainty with loving care for both her and her unborn baby’s life.
Human life must no longer be treated as property.
