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Moral Issues of Abortion

On the basis of a 7-2 decision amid a flurry of controversy and legal wrangling, the Supreme Court of the United States issued a final ruling on the issue of legalized abortion on January 22, 1973. Without becoming stymied in the morass of a societal debate on the application of Constitutional Law, suffice it to say that Roe-v-Wade represents the most eminent example of minority interpretationism in the history of the United States, and perhaps in the course of World history should the implications of that decision be held up for review to that extent.

Obviously the 7-2 ruling was carried on the weight of a majority vote where nine Supreme Court Justices' was involved, but a moral society of humanity from the day of creation rose to overshadow that decision with a cloud of dissent that cast their ruling in the dimmest light of a particulate minority.

In his dissenting opinion, Justice Byron R. White refers to the ruling as "an exercise of raw judicial power" finding "nothing in the language or history of the Constitution to support the Court's judgment." He went on to write that the Court's decision "values the convenience of the pregnant mother more than the continued existence and development of the life or potential life that she carries."

It would seem the only thing involving the Court's decision that has managed to escape controversy is the assertion that it represents a political, social minefield and those who venture onto that field risk the possible alienation of friends, family and constituents alike. While searching the depths for the presence and evidence of a moral conscience, the average citizen who falls through an undecided crack in society are perhaps those who also wish to escape controversy.

Two of seven Supreme Court Justices', however, made no such distinctions when they clearly cast the weight of their distinguished qualifications on the side of their moral convictions. They had nothing to gain, they had nothing to lose. Perhaps that is one reason Supreme Court Justices' are given lifetime appointments that remove the pressure of personal considerations and possible influence of special interests.

To what extent should moral conviction influence civil law? To what extent is it possible to separate laws that affect society from the human element that such laws are designed to protect, enrich and perpetuate? What are laws written on paper if they are not lifeless, meaningless words without the life giving essence

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