Dispelling Myths About Roe v. Wade II

Details: 04 January 2013

As we move closer to the 40th anniversary of Roe v. Wade on January 22, 2013, this column continues to dispel the many myths that surround this Supreme Court ruling legalizing abortion. The following material comes from "Roe Reality Check" produced by the U.S. Bishops’ Pro Life Secretariat. It is available online at www.secondlookproject.org.

MYTH: Roe v. Wade is only about a woman’s right to abortion, not about a right to take life in general.

FACT: Roe has often been cited by state and federal judges to endanger human beings already born. In 1986, relying on Roe, the Supreme Court invalidated a law intended to ensure care for children born alive during attempted abortions.

In 1983, a U.S. district court invalidated a federal regulation to prevent medical neglect of handicapped newborns in hospitals receiving federal funds. The court said the regulation may "infringe upon the interests outlined in cases such as … Roe v. Wade." In 1980, a New York court cited Roe in a "right to die" case, arguing that the "claim to personhood" of a terminally ill comatose patient "is certainly no greater than that of the fetus."

In 1993, a Michigan judge cited Roe in dismissing criminal charges against Jack Kevorkian and declaring that the state law against assisted suicide was unconstitutional. And in 1996, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit relied heavily on Roe and its successor, Planned Parenthood v. Casey, in finding a constitutional "right" to assisted suicide.

While some of these rulings were later modified or reversed, they all underscore how Roe v. Wade has been used to argue that ideas of privacy and liberty can trump life itself -- after as well as before birth.

MYTH: Abortion is standard medical practice; only religious hospitals and some physicians refuse to provide it.

FACT: Even abortion advocates acknowledge that abortion is outside mainstream medicine.

The vast majority (86%) of all U.S. hospitals whether religious or secular, public or private, do not participate in abortions. 71% of abortions in the United States are performed in free-standing abortion-dedicated clinics. Only 5% are performed in hospitals, 2% in physicians’ offices and 22% in other kinds of clinics.

A New York Times Magazine article reports, "The overwhelming majority of abortions are performed by a small group of doctors. (Some 2 percent of OB-GYNs carry the burden, performing more than 25 per month)." In Nebraska 99.9% of abortions are committed by three abortionists in free-standing abortion mills.

MYTH: Roe said the Constitution includes a right to abortion.

FACT: Yet even legal commentators who support legal abortion have said Roe is not good constitutional law. John Hart Ely, a Yale Law School professor said Roe v. Wade is "a very bad decision... because it is not constitutional law and gives almost no sense of an obligation to try to be."

Edward Lazarus, former clerk to Justice Blackmun (who authored Roe) said "As a matter of constitutional interpretation and judicial method, Roe borders on the indefensible… [It is] one of the most intellectually suspect constitutional decisions of the modern era."

Benjamin Wittes, Washington Post legal affairs editorial writer, said "Since its inception Roe has had a deep legitimacy problem, stemming from its weakness as a legal opinion." Laurence Tribe, Harvard Law School professor, said "One of the most curious things about Roe is that, behind its own verbal smokescreen, the substantive judgment on which it rests is nowhere to be found."

Even several Supreme Court justices have criticized Roe v. Wade. Justice Byron White said "I find nothing in the language or history of the Constitution to support the Court’s judgment" in Roe v. Wade. Justice Sandra Day O’Connor said "This Court’s abortion decisions have already worked a major distortion in the Court’s constitutional jurisprudence… no legal rule or doctrine is safe from ad hoc nullification by this Court … in a case involving state regulation of abortion."

Justice Antonin Scalia said Roe v. Wade "destroyed the compromises of the past, [and] rendered compromise impossible for the future… To portray Roe as the statesmanlike ‘settlement’ of a divisive issue… is nothing less than Orwellian." And Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg said, "Roe v. Wade…ventured too far in the change it ordered and presented an incomplete justification for its action."

You can contact Greg at The Nebraska Catholic Conference, 215 Centennial Mall South Suite 310, Lincoln, NE 68508; This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.