One year after Roe overturned it's time to recognize this fundamental right
Every human being – born and unborn – is entitled to the equal protection of the laws
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}A year has passed since Roe v. Wade was overturned, marking perhaps the most significant turning point in history for the pro-life movement and for those we fight for.
It was, however, only one milestone in the long journey to end elective abortion once and for all. In the United States, 2,548 abortions still occur every day. The fight to protect mothers, fathers and children from the harms of abortion is more important than ever.
Now, Congress and the states have the ability and responsibility to craft legislation that will protect human life. We must secure the right to life for all Americans by ensuring equal protection for unborn children across the nation.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}Activists take part in the March for Life, Jan, 19, 2018, in Washington, D.C. (Alex Wong/Getty Images)
This is why Rep. Doug Lamborn, R-Colo., introduced a historic resolution in the House of Representatives. The Recognizing Life Resolution (H.R. 464) calls on all three branches of our government to fulfill their constitutional obligation to protect innocent human life.
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The Declaration of Independence recognizes that all human beings are "created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights," the first of which is the right to life. Any government that fails to protect this first and greatest right cannot claim a mantle of justice and human rights.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}Likewise, the 14th Amendment reiterates this fundamental recognition by stating:
"No State shall… deprive any person of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law; nor deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws."
The Supreme Court in Washington, on Nov. 6, 2020. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite, File)
Every human being is entitled to the equal protection of the laws. State laws permitting elective abortion deny unborn persons the same legal protections that are afforded to born persons, violating the Constitution’s equal protection requirement.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}The 14th Amendment was ratified in 1868 after the Civil War to protect the civil rights of all Americans – especially the millions of recently liberated African American. With an eye toward the future, the amendment’s drafters deliberately chose expansive language to include any person within the protective embrace of the amendment’s equal protection guarantee.
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The primary framer of the 14th Amendment, Rep. John Bingham, explained that it was designed to ensure that "no State in the Union should deny to any human being… the equal protection of the laws."
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}The 14th Amendment was written at a time when both the common law and statutory laws treated unborn children as human beings. (iStock)
This amendment was written at a time when both the common law and statutory laws treated unborn children as human beings, and accordingly, as persons entitled to life and protection from violence. Abortion was unlawful under the common law, and a super-majority of states prohibited abortion at all stages by statute, too.
Since then, our scientific knowledge about the beginning of life has expanded exponentially. Today, the medical and scientific consensus affirm that each human life begins at fertilization. This reality is already reflected in federal law and the laws of 38 states, which forbid fetal homicide.
Likewise, the common law, state laws and federal law have always prohibited executions of pregnant women who have been convicted of capital crimes in recognition of the unborn child’s separate and distinct humanity.
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Each of these laws reflects a basic reality that our legal system has always recognized. There is no distinction between a human being’s biological existence and legal personhood. Denying this basic fact was the basis of chattel slavery in the past, just as it is the basis of abortion today. The very idea of a human being who is viewed as anything less than a person is a moral atrocity.
President Ronald Reagan said, "Our nation cannot continue down the path of abortion, so radically at odds with our history, our heritage, and our concepts of justice," and that "The well-being and the future of our country, demand that protection of the innocents must be guaranteed and that the personhood of the unborn be declared and defended throughout our land."
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}President Ronald Reagan said, "Our nation cannot continue down the path of abortion, so radically at odds with our history, our heritage, and our concepts of justice." (Dirck Halstead/Getty Images)
Under President Reagan's watch, the GOP platform even added a plank endorsing "legislation to make clear that the 14th Amendment’s protections apply to children before birth." That language remains in the GOP platform to this day.
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The Recognizing Life Resolution calls upon Congress to recognize that an unborn child is a person and therefore must be afforded the same protections that you or I hold dear. It uses existing common law, state law and federal precedent to show that the history of our nation and culture has always reviled abortion and held it to be illegal. This position must become the battlefield on which the pro-life movement establishes itself as we move beyond the Dobbs decision.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}Now is the time to ensure that each human being in our country – born or unborn – has his or her first and most basic right protected and to ensure that no class of persons is denied the equal protection of our laws.
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Rep. Doug Lamborn, a Republican, represents Colorado’s Fifth Congressional District.