Postcript to Dobbs vs Jackson

The other day, while on board my flight from Orlando to LA, then en route to my plane ride from LA to Manila and finally to Cebu, to attend an oath-taking of a dear friend, Vice Governor Hilario P Davide III, I read the 78-paged impeccably penned decision by a learned Associate Justice, Samuel Alito, in Dobbs vs. Jackson Women Health Organization, abrogating the 1973 "egregiously wrong" ruling in Roe vs. Wade. This is a landmark judgment that likewise overturns the rush 1992 decision in Planned Parenthood vs. Casey.

May I paraphrase Justice Blackstone's logic, cited by Justice Alito, who wrote the majority opinion, that: If A fires his gun with intent to kill B, and by accident, kills C instead, the US law provides that A is still guilty of murder. And if D poisons E and the poison was accidentally drank by F, D is still guilty of murdering F. Therefore, if G an OB gyne doctor, gives an abortion drug to H, a pregnant woman, killing I, an innocent unborn child, then G and H, in conspiracy and helping each other, with intent to kill an unborn child, is guilty of killing  Baby I. In fact, if I may add, the murder of an innocent unborn child is more despicable because the latter has no way to defend himself against the two co-conspirators.

The decision written by Justice Alito concerns a constitutional issue of whether the State of Mississippi (or any state for that matter) that passed a law to prohibit abortion acted within the bounds of its state autonomy. May a state government prevent the abortion of a child in the mother's 15th week of pregnancy. It is the position of the pro-choice advocates in the USA that the mother has the absolute right to decide when it comes to matters involving her own health and life survival and no government can dictate policy involving such a personal matter. The state of Mississippi however takes the position that it is the duty of the government to protect an innocent third party, who is an unborn child inside the mother's womb. The pro-choice states and individuals anchored their objection of the precedent-setting judgment in Roe vs. Wage, fifty years ago.

Justice Alito and his fellow conservatives in the Supreme Court, including the Chief Justice, John Roberts as well as Justices Clarence Thomas, Neil Gorsuch, Brett Kavanaugh, and Amy Barrett voted to overthrow what they call a decision which was "egregiously wrong," It is the position of the majority of six justices that the US Constitution does not allow anyone to kill an unborn child, that no human person has the right of choice to terminate a life although unborn. Most of the conservatives, which should include all Catholics, nay, all Christians, should stand to defend life which begins at the very moment that a female's egg cell joins a male's sperm, or at the moment of conception.

Justice Alito wrote that there is nothing in the US Constitution, nor among its many amendments, authorizing any mother to abort her child nor giving power to any state to authorize the killing of unborn children. The ultraconservative, black male justice Clarence Thomas, an appointee of Republican president George H W Bush, went as far as saying that, aside from Roe vs. Wade and the 1992 case of Casey, the Supreme Court should also review and reverse its ruling on the same sex marriage in Obergefell vs. Hodges, as well as the decision in Grisworld vs Connecticut on contraception. All the six justices unanimously decided that the law of Mississippi should be upheld. But only five (did not include Chief Justice Roberts) held that Roe vs. Wade should be reversed, as they did.

The three dissenting justices, led by Justice Stephen Breywer (who is retiring this year and is being replaced by the first ever female Black Justice, appointed by President Joe Biden, and conformed narrowly by the senate, Ketanji Brown Johnson) are of the minority opinion that no government can tell a woman on what to do with her own body. To which we join in the repartee: It is not just the woman's body. There is a defenseless unborn life. The State should come to its succor, vis-a-vis the widespread conspiracy to kill an innocent baby. This US Supreme Court decision is obviously aligned with the teachings of the Church. As far as I know, there is no religion in the world that teaches killing the unborn. It took the USA 50 years to realize that Roe was wrong. The Philippine laws had declared abortion criminal more than 100 years ago.