There has been much written and discussed about the bill South Dakota Governor Mike Rounds signed that bans all abortions in the state Many pro-lifers have discussed the prudence of doing this at the present time. Obviously pro-abortion groups will bring this into the courts and it is quite possible that it could make it to the Supreme Court if they later agree to hear the case. Considering that we are likely to have four steady vote, it comes to needing Justice Kennedy to side with Justices Scalia, Thomas, Roberts, and Alito. If this doesn’t happen and the law is overturned we have the situation where it is unlikely that the court would hear a similar case for sometimes.
I think this analysis offered by many is politically astute and if we look at the ban from just the level of political strategery it looks like the right law at the wrong time. Though I do think it also needs to be looked at from another level and that we should do more than just talk about the consequences of the bill.
In 1571 a force of Ottoman galleys in the Gulf of Lepanto looked like it would handily defeat the The Holy League’s fleet. The fleet was insignificant compared to the number of ships and men available to the Ottoman empire. On a pure strategic level the s Habsburg-controlled fleet had no chance for success but at the end of the day their small fleet was victorious with the Ottoman fleet loosing over two thirds of their fleet and suffered over three times as many causalities a the Holy League. Leading up to this battle Pope St. Pius V asked for public prayers in Rome for the success of the fleet and specifically that Rosary fraternities pray to Mary for victory over the Islamic forces. The next year he instituted the feast of Our Lady of Victory (now Our Lady of the Rosary) held on the day of this decisive battle (Oct 7th).
The point of this little history of which I am sure most of my readers were already aware of is to urge you all to storm heaven in prayer, especially with the Rosary, that what might be an imprudent bill or a tactical blunder, might instead be a decisive victory protecting unborn children from abortion. No one expected an abortionist testifying in congress to admit to the fact that the numbers of partial birth abortions were much larger in number than abortion advocates had portrayed. Much happens that is unexpected (just ask Goliath) and the power of prayer is behind much that is unexpected.
If this case makes it to the court possibly it wouldn’t be heard till the next session of the court. The Supreme Court term starts on the first Monday in October and even though the Feast of Our Lady of the Rosary is five days later this year – that’s close enough for God.
Our Lady of the Rosary pray for us and for your children under threat of attack.
24 comments
Well said! My point exactly!
Those who talk about waiting for an opportune time, have lost the sense of urgency. Instead of thinking about Abortion The Issue with a capital ‘A’, they should think about . . . just one abortion.
Wouldn’t you do what you could to stop it?
Don Juan of Austria led the Battle of Lepanto. He carried a painted copy of Our Lady of Guadalupe into that battle.
Pope St. Pius V asked for public prayers in Rome for the success of the fleet and specifically that Rosary fraternities pray to Mary for victory of the Islamic forces.
Wow, that’s a strange thing for the Pope to pray for. The success of the Muslims?
I think Jeff meant ‘over’.
Tony,
Nice catch, thanks.
The Curt Jester on South Dakota
While I think an army deciding not to wait for reinforcements and charging the enemy citadel with what they know is insufficient forces is a better analogy than the Habsburg fleet defending Europe from the Turks at Lepanto, Jeff Miller’s suggestion t…
Those who talk about waiting for an opportune time, have lost the sense of urgency. Instead of thinking about Abortion The Issue with a capital ‘A’, they should think about . . . just one abortion.
Wouldn’t you do what you could to stop it?
Not if I couldn’t stop it by acting now and could stop abortions in the future by waiting for reinforcements. Losing our heads and refusing to think things through because of the urgency of the matter will not save a single unborn child, but acting reasonably may save millions. This situation is especially poignant because even a delay of two or three years could mean the difference between Roe being upheld and thus safe for at least another decade and Roe being overturned. Acting now out of the “urgency” of it may make us feel good about ourselves, but if it ultimately prevents Roe from being overturned it will be a betrayal of the unborn (albeit by negligence).
The first unitalicized paragraph in my comment ought to have been italicized (indicating quotation, of course). Sorry about that.
Jeff,
You’re welcome.
At least you know I’m reading your stuff 🙂
It’s no use trying to make abortion illegal — the US won’t put up with the sight of women carted off to have their babies in prison. Nor will Europe or Japan.
Instead we should aim at making it rare.
Once again, the straw man.
Something can be illegal without throwing those who engage in it in jail. It’s illegal to kill yourself in most states, and hence legal for all sorts of folks to do stuff to prevent you from suiciding.
But we don’t throw unsuccessful suicides in prison; we send them to counseling, or hospitalize them until they are safe to be left alone. Similarly, if abortion were illegal, one would almost certainly criminalize doctors and non-medical people who do the actual aborting; but mothers trying to abort would be given all the counseling and help they need to stop trying to hurt themselves and their babies. Since very few women try to abort without being pressured into it by family or boyfriends, this would also have the effect of getting them away safe from such cruel intimidation.
G.K. Chesterton wrote a fantastic poem about The Battle of Lepanto. It begins:
“White founts falling in the Courts of the sun,
And the Soldan of Byzantium is smiling as they run;”
The hero is, of course, Don John of Austria. The poem ends:
“(But Don John of Austria rides home from the Crusade.)”
Nice piece of work.
Of course, there’s also that little incident with the Spanish Armada which, when I taught in an evangelical school using a Bob Jones “history text”, was said to show God’s decisive statement that the New World (Order?) was to be be Protestant…
Now, crossing the threshold of hope, I think that the authors of this gambit might be crazy like a fox. The bill will be struck down. That is a foredrawn conclusion. It is not a matter of speculation and no one with the intelligence to write the bill in proper English could miss that. So then we are left with how to explain such a strange phenomenon. Here’s an optimistic one: the strategy is to put forth an impossibly strong bill to get the justices to say clearly what’s missing: life exemption, health exemption, whatever. Once this is specified a new bill can be passed with *precisely* those changes. This will make it pretty much impossible for them not to hear challenges to the new bill since it will not be covered by the precedent ex hypothesi.
In short, if my hopes are accurate this is a way of getting the court to write the bill themselves. If Kennedy says “This bill is unconstitutional because of features X,Y, and Z and then those features are addressed it’s hard to see how even he can reject a bill revised to suit his own statements.
http://xcatholics.blogspot.com
This new law might not be overturned because even if the judges think abortion is acceptable, it is a matter of whether or not each state has a right to decide for themselves about abortion. If they approached the law in that manner then it might get enough votes to stay.
If they approached the law in that manner then it might get enough votes to stay.
That ought to be the way it goes down, but it simply isn’t realistic given the current configuration of the Court. In fact, Anthony Kennedy’s position is pretty much the opposite: he personally opposes abortion but says that he can’t put his own policy opinion above precedent. Barring another vacancy or genuine miracle, this law will be struck down. The question is whether the Supreme Court will reaffirm Roe or just let the Circuit Court of Appeal’s order striking it down stand.
If we’re placing bets, my bet is they will not hear the case. And the official reason given on why the Supreme Court will not hear the case will be contorted and unsatisfactory to all. The real reason the case will not be heard is that it is not “ripe.”
Teresa,
I hope you’re right. Unfortunately, Justices Stevens, Souter, Ginsburg, and Breyer (assuming they are all still on the court) may vote to hear the case just so they can reaffirm Roe before the Court’s composition changes again. It only takes four votes to hear a case. If they do not hear the case, it will probably be a testament to John Roberts’ leadership abilities.
Dialogue about all aspects of abortion, without anger, would greatly help our societies to reach a forward, constructive direction in handling this painful issue.
If abortion is criminalized, it must mean that criminal penalties attach to it. Doctors and nurses may be intimidated by law, but then backstreet abortionists will spring up — how is this new criminal class to be dealt with? And if they in turn disappear, women will seek to induce abortion on their own. Is use of the morning-after pill to be criminalized too? And the penalty for the crime is — counseling?
It would do so much to reduce abortions if a state were to declare them illegal. Part of the reasons uninformed young people have them is because of an impression that it is legal so it must be OK. If society could draw the line on the immmorality of this action and criminalize it as it rightly should- maybe the undecided and ill-informed will begin to realize how evil it really is.
Spirit of Vatican II, in most jurisdictions pre-legalization of abortion, any woman could turn in an abortionist who’d performed an abortion on her without penalties accruing to her.
Please if you live in Northeast Florida, I need your help. I just recieved this E-mail from Culture of Life:
Planned Parenthood is doing a letter to the editor campaign. We need
> letters expressing our PRO-Life point of view.
>
> Read Planned Parenthood’s statement below and write a letter to the
> editor. Email it to the Times Union at mike.clark@jacksonville.com
> and The St. Augustine Record at editor@staugustinerecord.com .
>
>
> “Planned Parenthood of Northeast Florida (PPNF) engaged in a letter
> to the editor advocacy campaign as a part of the Planned Parenthood
> National Day of Solidarity. PPNF asked supporters to send a letter to
> Mike Clark, the Jacksonville Times Union editor, expressing their
> outrage at the abortion ban in South Dakota. To date 122 letters from
> supporters have been sent to the editor.”
>
> Please take a few minutes and write a letter.
> Pass this on to others.
>
> Rafael Ortega
I’m afraid I agree with the “too much too soon” point of view. The votes are not there to reverse Roe and probably will not be for years, unless Pres Bush gets another appointment with a dependable Senate majority. (Note that with Republicans like Specter, Snow, etc, the current majority is razor thin if it came to voting for what would be an apparent 5th anti-Roe vote. Any bets after Jan 07?) A ban on third trimester abortions, except to save the mother’s life-essentially reversing Roe’s companion case of Bolton, which threw out Roe’s trimester system on the same day it was born- would be a less satisfactory but eminently more doable effort, and would lay the basis of canceling the all consuming health exception that gave the US the most liberable abortion law in the west- perhaps in the world less China.
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