Victory for life, conservatives, and Catholics

We are here in Florida, a legal team of 17 lawyers, 15 Americans and two Filipinos, debating on the historic abrogation of the pro-abortion ruling in 1973, Roe v. Wade, and the 1992 decision in Planned Parenthood v. Casey. We are sharply divided with 10 of us applauding the latest decision and seven (including the other Filipino) denouncing it. This is the earthshaking US Supreme Court verdict in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization.

Before some readers either commend or bash us, may I respectfully recommend that they better know the basic issues first. The problem with many bashers in social media today is that their audacity is usually based on ignorance and bias. They should use their minds first before their tongues or fingers. And they better avoid imposing their prejudices on opinion writers, as if they have the inherent right to overrule or reverse our views. Well, I have news for them. They are neither our editors, publishers, much less the Supreme Court. We respect their opinions but they should return the favor to us who do our research before we dare to write. Bashers have rights but writers have theirs too. I hope the Supreme Court will someday rule on cases like Bashers v. Columnists, et al.

First of all, this writer applauds the ruling overturning Roe v. Wade because I am a Catholic, a Knight of Columbus, a lay minister, and a parish council leader for life. I do not believe that any woman has the right to choose abortion and that the State should outlaw the murder of unborn children. This historic decision upholds the constitutionality of a Mississippi law that prohibits any woman from aborting her child after the 15th week of pregnancy. It therefore reversed the 50-year-old ruling in Roe v. Wade whereby women were allowed the freedom to kill their unborn babies on the pretext of protecting their own health, and for whatever reason. In a way, this is a victory of local autonomy, just like the victory of Cebu in the unfiled case of Duque and Año v. Governor Gwen Garcia on the transcendental case of face masks wearing.

Roe v. Wade was an "egregious wrong", to quote the majority opinion, 78 pages of them, written by Justice Samuel Alito, and concurred in by justices Clarence Thomas, Neil Gorsuch, Brett Kavanaugh, Amy Barrett and Chief Justice John Roberts. We hasten to add that Roberts merely voted to uphold the Mississippi law and not to abrogate Roe v. Wade. It makes the chief justice neither an ultra-conservative like Thomas nor a liberal like the three dissenters, Stephen Breywer, Sonia Sotomayor, and Elena Kagan. Incidentally, a little politics: The three dissenters were all appointed by Democrat presidents, Breywer by Clinton and the others by Obama. The majority who are conservatives were appointed by Republicans, Bush and Trump respectively.

This latest decision is a big victory for Catholics, for pro-life advocates, for conservatives and for the Republican Party. It is a big slap to President Joe Biden, a Democrat who is ironically a Catholic, and yet remains a pro-choice chief executive. This is also a big win for states like Mississippi, North Carolina, and Wisconsin who are the strongest pro-life states, along with Michigan, South Dakota, Kentucky, Louisiana, Texas, Idaho, and Tennessee. And this is a big blow against pro-choice states like Hawaii and California where many Pinoys are residing, along with Oregon, Washington, Nevada, Colorado, Illinois, New York, and New Jersey. Well, we are here in Florida, a largely Catholic, Hispanic, southern state who voted for Trump and not for Biden.

Justice Breywer, by the way, is retiring very soon. His replacement has been appointed by President Biden, and confirmed by the Senate in a very partisan voting (many Democrats are for her, and most Republicans against, except for a few who crossed party lines to uphold her appointment). Her appointment is historic, being the first black female to be honored as such. She is expected to be a liberal, but she might surprise the Democrats and be conservative instead, like the other black magistrate, Clarence Thomas. Well, the US Supreme Court has nine justices. The Philippines, a much smaller country, has 15. But that is another story. The US ruling is a victory of Catholic Filipinos and all Christians for that matter, who believe in the sanctity of life and who abhor abortion, the merciless killing of the unborn.