'Catholics for Life' Ask Supreme Court for Nationwide Abortion Ban and Full Constitutional Rights fo

‘Catholics for Life’ Ask Supreme Court for Nationwide Abortion Ban and Full Constitutional Rights for Fetuses (but not for women!!)
9/14/2022 by Carrie N. Baker



An abortion rights supporter counter-protests in front of the the U.S. Supreme Court during the 2018 March for Life on Jan. 19, 2018. (Alex Wong / Getty Images)

Immediately after the draft opinion in Dobbs leaked on May 2, Republican lawmakers and anti-abortion activists from the Susan B. Anthony List announced they were working on legislation to ban abortion nationwide. But Catholics for Life (CFL), impatient to achieve that goal sooner, have asked the Supreme Court to do just that in a petition filed on Sept. 1. CFL and two “unborn Petitioners”—represented by their pregnant mothers—have asked the U.S. Supreme Court to rule that fetuses, “regardless of gestational age,” are “entitled to the protections and guarantees of the due process and equal protection clauses of the United States Constitution.” They seek an order striking down a 2019 Rhode Island law legalizing abortion in the state.

Just over two months after the Supreme Court in Dobbs gave states the power to regulate abortion, CFL has asked the Court to snatch that power back and ban abortion nationwide by ruling that “unborn human beings” have full constitutional rights. The Supreme Court in Dobbs invited such a request by referring to “unborn human beings” 23 times in its opinion in that case, laying the groundwork for striking down state laws protecting abortion rights in states such as Rhode Island, New York, Illinois and California.
“Once you say that it is an ‘unborn human being,’ then it’s a short step to saying that laws allowing abortion are unconstitutional because they deny equal protection to those persons that are unborn human beings,” said Berkeley Law School Dean Erwin Chemerinsky. “I believe that there may be a majority on the Court to take that position … then what restrictions will be imposed on women and what will women be prosecuted for doing during their pregnancy? Working in certain jobs? Drinking? Taking certain drugs?”

Catholic for Life’s brief mentioned “unborn human beings” 25 times. They argued the Court’s ruling in Dobbs “surely [signals] rejection of this Court’s statement in Roe that ‘[t]he word ‘person’ as used in the Fourteenth Amendment, does not include the unborn.’” U.C. Irvine Law Professor Michele Bratcher Goodwin noted that the Supreme Court in Dobbs ignored that the 14th Amendment’s definition of citizens as “persons born … in the United States” in the first sentence of the amendment. “That’s very explicit. That’s very clear,” said Goodwin. “The Constitution does not mention embryos, fetuses or ‘unborn human beings.’” If in fact the Court rules that zygotes, embryos and fetuses have full constitutional rights, they will undoubtedly also rule that these “persons” have rights greater than any born person has: namely the right to inhabit and use a woman’s body against her will. No born person is entitled to the bodily tissue and fluids of another born person.
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Similarly, Samuel Alito in the majority opinion, wrote that the abortion decision should be made “the people and their elected representatives.” One can only hope they hold to this opinion—but they don’t have a good track record on following precedent.


https://msmagazine.com/2022/09/14/catholic-pro-life-supreme-court-abortion-ban-constitutional-rights-fetus-person-dobbs/