Court Blunders on Slavery and Abortion

One of the more frequently used arguments to defend abortion goes like this: The United States Supreme has settled the issue. Because the Court has ruled that abortion is legal, it must therefore be a correct and moral act beyond challenge.

In an 1857 court case, known as the Dred Scott decision, the Supreme Court ruled that slaves, even freed slaves, and all their descendants, had no rights protected by the Constitution and that states had no right to abolish slavery. Where would Blacks be today if that reasoning had not been challenged?

The reasoning in Dred Scott and Roe v. Wade is nearly identical. In both cases the Court stripped all rights from a class of human beings and reduced them to nothing more than the property of others. Compare the arguments the Court used to justify slavery and abortion. Clearly, in the Court's eyes, unborn children are now the same "beings of an inferior order" that the justices considered Blacks to be over a century ago.

The words "citizens" or "persons'' used in the Constitution were never intended to include Blacks/unborn children.

In the Dred Scott case of 1857 the Supreme Court said:

"... a negro, whose ancestors were imported into this country, and sold as slaves. . . were not intended to be included under the word 'citizens' in the Constitution, and can, therefore, claim none of the rights and privileges which that instrument provides for and secures to citizens of the United States."

In the Roe v. Wade case of 1973 the Supreme Court said:

"The word 'person,' as used in the Fourteenth Amendment, does not include the unborn.... [T]he unborn have never been recognized in the law as persons in the whole sense."

The right to privacy protects the decision to own slaves/abort unborn children.

In the Dred Scott case of 1857 the Supreme Court said:

A slave is the property of the master and the Constitution has "provided for the protection of private property against the encroachments of the Government."

In the Roe v. Wade case of 1973 the Supreme Court said:

"This right of privacy... is broad enough to encompass a woman's decision whether or not to terminate her pregnancy."

Slavery/abortion is justified because historically the rights of Blacks/ unborn children have been abused.

In the Dred Scott case of 1857 the Supreme Court said:

"...that unfortunate race...had for more than a century before been regarded as beings of an inferior order [and] they had no rights which the white man was bound to respect."

In the Roe v. Wade case of 1973 the Supreme Court said:

"...abortion was practiced in Greek times as well as in the Roman Era.... Greek and Roman law afforded little protection to the unborn."

Slavery/abortion is for the victim's own good.

In the Dred Scott case of 1857 the Supreme Court said:

"...the negro might justly and lawfully be reduced to slavery for his benefit."

In the Roe v. Wade case of 1973 the Supreme Court said:

"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 unable, psychologically, and otherwise to care for it."