In order to win the legal protection of the unborn, first the hearts and minds of the nation must be won.

   This process can be well served by the pursuit of:

   Proposed Resolution #2 for the U.S. Congress and the Legislatures of the Several States: Human Abortion and a Process of Informed Choice; and

   Proposed Resolution #3 for the U.S. Congress and the Legislatures of the Several States: Human Abortion and Male Irresponsibility.

   Then, legal process can be pursued in the context the consent of the governed to reform the law.

  In the meantime, a grasp of the true nature of Roe v. Wade is necessary. Below is an excerpt fro Vol. 2 of "First the Gospel, Then Politics..." ("Political Theology"), © 1999-2008 John C. Rankin.

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The 1973 Roe v. Wade decision that overturned state laws which prohibited human abortion. Especially, we need to understand its philosophical and religious assumptions.

In Roe and its companion decision, Doe v. Bolton, the U.S. Supreme Court discovered a "penumbra" of the Constitution that equaled a broad "right to privacy," as rooted in the 1965 Griswold v. Connecticut ruling regarding birth control. Then they declared there is a "right to privacy" broad enough to encompass a woman’s "fundamental right" to an abortion. (A question, however, that abortion-rights partisans cannot answer is: Can you show any philosophical or historical linkage between unalienable rights and the putative "fundamental right to abortion?")

The "logic" it followed is a classic example of the reversal – theologically and politically. All the way through the ruling, the power of informed choice is rejected. There are eight major points to analyze.

First, Roe begins by citing the "emotional nature of the abortion controversy" that involves people’s philosophy, experiences, their "exposure to the raw edges of human experience," their religious training and attitude toward "life and family." Then it throws in issues of "population growth, pollution, poverty and racial overtones [which] tend to complicate." But Roe never addressed these issues [other than a secondary reference to poverty in the Doe ruling], and never prescribes their successful redress and/or how liberalized abortion laws would contribute to such a redress. Having diagnosed this territory, it then pretends to be objective and rise above its pedestrian folly:

"Our task, of course, is to resolve the issue by constitutional measurement, free of emotion and predilection (410 U.S. 113 at 116)."

What we shall discover is that a) there is no honest constitutional measurement employed in Roe, and b) the Court’s ruling is based entirely on its predilections in favor of human abortion. It is an elitist posture seen often in the mainstream media’s reporting ethics – whether on television news, radio news or in newspapers. Namely, there is a facade presented that the "news" is being reported by "objective" reporters, when indeed, so often there is bias in what "news" is covered, and how it is "slanted" to serve a certain predilection.

Honesty in the media would be far better served if the reporters would be up front about their biases or worldviews, thus giving to the viewers, listeners and readers the power of informed choice to consider such factors. To pretend to be objective rejects the power to live in the light. So too Roe.

Second, Roe sets the stage for a false definition of terms (which equals misinformed choice), when it draws in the language of the "penumbras" of the Bill of Rights. The Random House Dictionary of the English Language, Second Edition (1987), Unabridged, introduces the definition of the word penumbra:

"1. Astron. a. the partial or imperfect shadow outside the complete shadow of an opaque body, as a planet, where the light from the source of illumination is only partly cut off. Cf. umbra (def. 3a). b. the grayish marginal portion of a sunspot. Cf. umbra (def. 3b). 2. a shadow, indefinite, or marginal area."

In other words, what we have here is the groundwork for the whole Roe logic being rooted in a rejection of the power to live in the light. The Court based its ruling on what it declares as a "fundamental right," on "indefinite, imperfect or marginal shadows." This shows the deep weakness of its position. It is ethically occultic – it is a ruling from the darkness masquerading as the light. By fabricating a definition from the undefined shadows, it then imports such a definition into the core of the light of the Bill of Rights, and pretends it was there all along. Placing into the text what was not there, and then pretending it was there all along, is the classic definition of eisegesis. Theology is still the queen of the sciences.

Third, Roe had to get rid of a time-honored definition of medical science which opposed human abortion as the destruction of a human life. This it did hand in glove with a bias against biblical faith. Abortion was shown to be acceptable in ancient pagan cultures, specifically in the Greco-Roman period. However, there was a fly in the ointment of this argument – the Hippocratic Oath, adopted in pre-Christian Greek culture, and which became the most widely respected ethical guide for physicians in western history. Part of the oath includes a pledge never to give a woman any drugs to produce an abortion. Up until the mid-twentieth century, medical school graduates would recite the Hippocratic Oath upon graduation. Now, however, wherever, if at all, it is still recited, the portion that renounces abortion is usually removed.

To cast aside the Oath, the Court adopted the "theory" of a notorious abortionist:

"Dr. Edelstein then concludes that the Oath originated in a group representing only a small section of Greek opinion and that it certainly was not accepted by all ancient physicians. He points out that medical writings down to Galen (A.D. 130-200) 'give evidence of the violation of almost every one of its injunctions.' But with the end of antiquity a decided change took place. Resistance against suicide and against abortion became common. The Oath came to be popular. The emerging teachings of Christianity were in agreement with the Pythagorean ethic.

"The Oath 'became the nucleus of all medical ethics' and 'was applauded as the embodiment of truth.' Thus, suggests Dr. Edelstein, it is 'a Pythagorean manifesto and not the expression of an absolute standard of medical conduct.'

"This, it seems to us, is a satisfactory and acceptable explanation of the Hippocratic Oath’s apparent rigidity. It enables us to understand, in historical context, a long-accepted and revered statement of medical ethics (410 U.S. 113 at 132)."

Roe was a 7-2 majority decision, written by the late Justice Harry Blackmun, and it selectively chose sources to suit its biases. Dr. Edelstein’s bias was publicly known to be as strong as it gets in favor of legalized abortion, and therefore he was purposed in his agenda to dismiss the Hippocratic Oath. The Hippocratic Oath was of course a minority opinion among the Greeks to start with, as "abortion-rights" was a minority opinion in the AMA until the time of Roe. And just because ethics are violated does not mean they are to be thrown aside. Do we get rid of certain laws for human rights just because the majority of German culture acquiesced to Hitler in the killing of the Jews? Edelstein’s argument is in favor of returning to a period where the rule of law is not honored, which is an intrinsic element of human abortion to begin with.

Thus, based on the diagnosis of a "minority opinion," Roe agrees with Edelstein and then shows its anti-Christian bigotry by stating that it was the Christian embrace of the "Pythagorean ethic" of the Hippocratic school that essentially fueled its social embrace. As Roe constructs its report of Edelstein’s argument, it then ratifies the dismissal of the Oath as a "manifesto," as it were, of a minority upon the majority – which it was not. To say this is to say that the Greco-Roman culture’s gradual embrace of Christianity until the fourth century A.D. was not based on their informed choice, but was dictated from above. It began as a minority opinion in a pagan culture (a common grace reversal of the reversal), as do any revolutionary changes, but then gained acceptance. Also, the truth is that the Christian opposition to human abortion was a quintessentially Jewish position of honoring nephesh in the order of creation, now understood through the Messiah; and it was not conforming itself to the Hippocratic Oath. Rather, the Oath happen to coincide with Hebrew assumptions, and thus it gained currency as the Gospel was preached and received within the Greco-Roman culture.

Roe thus eisegetes and does not exegete the "historical context." By implicitly assigning the Hippocratic Oath’s "apparent rigidity" to its convergence with the Gospel, it becomes for the Court "a satisfactory and acceptable explanation" sufficient for the moment to dispense with "a long revered statement of medical ethics." (But too, the Court could not be too explicit in its anti-Christian bigotry and get away it, thus it syntactically had to cloak the bias with the Pythagorean ethic – but historians know that it was the Gospel that provided for the enduring success of the Hippocratic Oath.) At every turn, Roe operates within this "penumbra" of shadowy edges. Roe is not looking for the core truth, but for whatever is passable, as served by willing biases within elitist culture. Roe operated in the darkness, and mocked the power to live in the light.

Fourth, Roe had to dismiss the position of the American Medical Association (AMA) in its opposition to abortion beginning with its 1859 report. A Committee on Criminal Abortion was formed in 1857 under the leadership of Boston physician, Dr. Horatio R. Storer, and in 1859 it made the following recommendations, as we have noted earlier:

"Resolved, That while physicians have long been united in condemning the act of producing abortion, at every period of gestation, except as necessary for preserving the life of either mother or child, it has become the duty of this Association, in view of the prevalence and increasing frequency of this crime, publicly to enter an earnest and solemn protest against such warrantable destruction of human life ....

"Resolved, That the Association request the zealous co-operation of the various State Medical Societies in pressing the subject upon the legislatures of their respective States .... (The Human Life Review, Vol. XIII, Winter 1982, pp. 95-96)."

An interesting point to note here is the exception clause – the life of the mother or child. In the medical practices of the time, a child’s life could be threatened by a continued pregnancy, and in such situations today we have excellent neo-natal care units to follow a Caesarean section, making this concern a non-issue in the developed world. The concern for the mother’s life then becomes a matter of when the child is too young for early delivery, and even so, this is quite rare.

Also, the language here makes clear that the humanity of the unborn was the focus of concern. In James Mohr’s book, Abortion in America (1978), and appealed to often by abortion-rights advocates, he argued that the reason the AMA opposed abortion, was for the ulterior purpose of establishing the hegemony of its guild against "unlicenced" medical practitioners. And he said that part of this involved an attempt to put abortionists out of business, especially women abortionists. No doubt the AMA sought to do so, but that was not why human abortion was opposed – it was opposed because of its intrinsic destruction of human life.

In addition, the Roe Court argued that the AMA’s position was not truly in regard to the well-being of the unborn child, but was out of concern for the woman – since human abortion was so dangerous to women at the time. Here is another eisegetical example – for the AMA’s language is clear in its concern for the unborn as fully human. Certainly the concern was equally for the mother and her unborn, and that is why the exception clause for her life was included. But there was no setting of the mother over and against her unborn child as Roe does, or vice versa as abortion-rights proponents accuse the pro-life advocates of supporting. The Court did not quote the above section of the AMA’s 1859 decision as I have – they chose another section, separated thus from the full context of the AMA’s decision, one that atomistically served their bias against the unborn.

Fifth, the Roe Court had to dismiss the AMA’s concern for the humanity of the unborn (which the AMA maintained at least until 1967), and to dismiss any "theory" that human life begins at conception. Thus, Roe tendentiously embraces Edelstein’s "theory" of the Hippocratic Oath with its anti-Christian bias, and now must dispense with biological fact by labeling it as a dispensable "theory." Roe argues:

"The third reason is the State’s interest – some phrase it in terms of duty – in protecting prenatal life. Some of the argument for this justification rests in the theory that a new human life is present from the moment of conception. The State’s interest and general obligation to protect life then extends, it is argued, to prenatal life. Only when the life of the pregnant mother herself is at stake, balanced against the life she carries within her, should the interest of the embryo or fetus not prevail. Logically, of course, a legitimate state interest in this area need not stand or fall on acceptance of the belief that life begins at conception or at some other point prior to live birth. In assessing the State’s interest, recognition may be given less rigid claim that as long as at least potential life is involved, the State may assert interests beyond the protection of pregnant women alone (410 U.S. 113 at 150)."

Near the conclusion of the Roe decision, it is explicit in the purpose for this language:

"In view of all this, we do not agree that by adopting one theory of life, Texas may override the rights of the pregnant woman that are at stake [e.g., for an abortion] (ibid. 162)."

In other words, Roe injects a "logic" that has no logic. It dismisses any concern for biological reality to impact the discussion of human life, reducing the question to one of many competing "theories" (read: classic syncretistic dualism in opposition to true definition of terms). It speaks of the biology of conception as a "belief," in a pejorative sense, as though biological fact is religiously impositional and therefore invalid in the public domain. In truth though, Roe’s actual "belief" is opposed to scientific fact, and cloaked in legal hubris which mocks accurate definition of terms, and therefore, mocks the power of informed choice. This reasoning serves the reversal. Then the Court further dehumanizes the unborn by calling for a "less rigid" interpretation of terms (read: amorphous), and thus, an invention the term "potential" life – so central in Roe’s thinking that it is placed in italics. How for example, as we looked at earlier, can embryonic human life be "potential" and not "actual"? Potential for what? It is not potentially human, but it is actually human in its essence and existence. And the unborn human has no potential to be other than human. The only potential is for the choices such a "little person" (the meaning of the Latin term fetus) will make, and if his or her life is protected to the point where those choices can be made.

Sixth, now that the humanity of the unborn has been denigrated based on a position of religious bias, a war has been concocted between mother and child, and the woman is made to hold a superior position of "rights" (the power to take and destroy in the reversal of the power to give). Then Roe sets about to invent the "right of privacy" that allows a woman to abort the "potential life" of her unborn child, with a logic that starts with a confession:

"The Constitution does not explicitly mention any right of privacy (ibid. at 152)."

Then Roe makes an eisegetical case that takes specific "zones of privacy" which the Constitution does mention, and extends them to a general "right of privacy" that nowhere exists in the Constitution, and applies it to what it ends up calling a "fundamental" right to abortion. Whereas the Constitution, in the Bill of Rights (the Fourth and Fifth Amendments), speaks of specific privacy rights – the right not to be forced to quarter soldiers in your home, and the right against search and seizure without a warrant – there is no broad "right to privacy" spelled out. Not to mention a "fundamental right" to destroy unborn human life. There is an assumed right, parallel with a concept of privacy, that the unalienable rights of life, liberty and property cannot be deprived apart from due process of law – of which the rights against quartering soldiers and unwarranted search and seizure are specific examples. The Roe Court invented a broader "right to privacy" out of whole cloth for the sake of securing the "right" to human abortion. This could only be done by denying the humanity of the unborn, and therefore their right to privacy (e.g., the right to the sanctuary of the womb, against the search and seizure of their unborn human lives, would be the only consistent logic here). This is to say that the assumed "privacy rights" of the inviolability of a person’s life, liberty and property – for the woman to secure an abortion – comes at the price of destroying the "privacy rights" of the unborn to life, liberty and property. The unborn can be searched out and their lives seized.

So, with no broad "right of privacy" located in the Constitution, the Court’s "logic" then makes another blind but calculated leap:

"This right to privacy, whether it be founded in the Fourteenth Amendment’s concept of personal liberty and restrictions upon state action, as we feel it is, or as the District Court determined, in the Ninth Amendment’s reservation of rights to the people, is broad enough to encompass a woman’s decision whether or not to terminate her pregnancy (ibid. at 153)."

Thus, though there is no "right of privacy" in the Constitution, Roe – with intrepid bias – invents and thus discovers one. Classic eisegesis. And it is predicated on a bias against the integrity of marriage. The Court’s decision not only rends child from mother, but also child from father, husband from wife, and thus man from woman in the larger context, in service to the male chauvinism of the abortion ethos. The husband and/or father never receives any mention in Roe relative to the abortion decision. In subsequent context, Roe defines why this "right of privacy" is needed:

"The detriment that the State would impose upon the pregnant woman by denying this choice altogether is apparent. Specific and direct harm medically diagnosable even in early pregnancy may be involved. 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. In other cases, as in this one, the additional difficulties and continuing stigma of unwed motherhood may be involved. All these are factors the woman and her responsible physician necessarily will consider in consultation (ibid. at 153).

Then, upon the concoction of a laundry list of "potential" distresses, Roe invests its trust in those potential distresses. Thus we note two points of intellectual and moral schizophrenia. First, Roe trusts a biased "theory" by which to dismiss the Hippocratic Oath, then the Court throws out biological fact by relegating it to the status of "one theory." Accept one "theory" and reject another "theory" according to what serves the desired bias. And second, Roe uses "potentiality" of the positive (human life) to dismiss the actual humanity of the unborn on the one hand, then uses "potentiality" of the negative (human distress) to dismiss the actual humanity of the unborn on the other hand. The reversal. The potentials for distress are real. But the question is whether or not we invest our trust in the power to give or in the power to destroy. The first is biblical, but the Roe Court chooses the latter in accord with its anti-Christian bias. And the Court chooses the power to destroy by also rejecting the priority of faithful marriage. For Roe, the "private" relationship between the woman and her "responsible physician" merits note, but not the truly private relationship with her husband (in those cases where it actually is the husband; and Roe does not address the extra-marital preponderance to begin with). Thus the Court invents a false right to privacy to destroy a true right to privacy. And the former "right" turns out to be a mockery, in that the overwhelming number of abortions since 1973 have little to do with a woman’s relationship with a "responsible physician," and far more to do with an abortionist, theretofore and subsequently unknown, almost always male, and who is there only to evacuate her womb, make a profit, and send her on her way – all in service to the prevailing male chauvinism of the abortion ethos and industry.

Seventh, the Fourteenth Amendment is perverted by the Roe Court to further dehumanize the unborn. This has been done biologically already, now the need is to remove the constitutional language of "personhood" from the unborn as well. Its decision reasons this way:

"The appellee and certain amici argue that the fetus is a "person" within the language and meaning of the Fourteenth Amendment. In support of this, they outline at length and in detail the well-known facts of fetal development. If this suggestion of personhood is established, the appellant’s case, of course, collapses, for the fetus’ right to life would then be guaranteed specifically by the Amendment. The appellant conceded as much on reargument. On the other hand, the appellee conceded on reargument that no case co