PRINCIPLE AND STRATEGEY TO END LEGAL MURDER OF UNBORN HUMANS
As the First Assistant District Attorney of Nueces County, Texas in the 60’s I had the responsibility to determine which felony cases would be accepted for prosecution, among which were cases of felony abortion. Most cases were analyzed from the perspective of the probability of successful prosecution. Almost all cases brought to our office were unquestionably a harm and an injustice to someone, but many times it was determined to be unproveable or highly unlikely to convince a jury beyond a reasonable doubt. There were many cases I believed should be tried but experience and practicality determined otherwise.
The goal of the pro-life cause is a society in which every unborn child is protected in law and welcomed in life. I do not believe that goal will ever be achieved perfectly, any more in the future than it was when it was a felony in the State of Texas. There will always be some abortions, as there will always be some other grave wrongs.
In the protection of unborn human life, the question is frequently posed in terms of incrementalists vs. absolutists. Last November’s defeat of the abortion ban in South Dakota, for instance; is generally attributed to the refusal to include exceptions for rape and incest. Most pro-lifers know that there is no justification to kill a child for the evil of the father, but the cold hard fact is that we can’t prevent it, and this is a different moral stance than to say we will permit it. It seems that if the solidly pro-life state of South Dakota can’t pass and maintain a law that has no exception, not many other states could either, and less likely nationally. It is sad also that a major precedent has been set in the present climate, that any legislative or judicial attempt to forbid abortion will have to include a rape exception.
If South Dakota will pass a new law it will have a rape exception, which should be made clear that it is an assault or forcible rape, and reported in a limited period of time, and to a responsible agency. I presume this approach will be seen as a betrayal of pure pro-life ethic, but I think that if such a law passes and is declared constitutional at the highest level, this would stop over 99% of all the abortions done legally today. If this can be done it will put Planned Parenthood out of business, because there will not be enough business to keep them in business. I believe a new respect for all human life will result and be accepted by the general public, and some time later the rape exception can be removed and people will be convinced that we can and should protect all unborn human life.
I believe there is no justification for any exception to the inalienable and non-negotiable right to life, and that absolutism is the moral premise to which incrementalism is the moral strategy in very limited instances. I do not choose incrementalism as my preference, but in my judgement, sometimes a perceived better means.
We continue to see more and more Americans gradually converting to pro-life, and much of the conversion has resulted from the work of American Life League in the promotion of “no exceptions.” In both law and life other ways of making the pro-life argument will not be made effectively apart from the “ no exceptions,” because it is always wrong to intentionally kill an innocent human being at any point of development, dependency, or decline.
I believe the best way to end abortion in the United States is through the requirement of section 5 of the 14th amendment, that Congress shall enforce the right to life of all innocent humans this amendment demands. It has not been done since legalized abortion was imposed judicially. It will become much more probable if and when states like South Dakota pass state laws that prohibit abortion. The sooner we have states protecting unborn humans and defying judicial legalized murder, the greater hope for U.S. Congressmen to acknowledge their duty to protect all innocent human life by obeying the Constitutional Right to Life protections in this country by the 5th and 14th Amendments.
Cliff Zarsky, President