Joe Carter over at First Things has The Lives Federalists Won’t Save . A very pro life Notre Dame Law Prof responds at Carter on abortion and federalism .
I tend to agree with the Law Prof here. I think part of the problem we see is that Federalism is equated too much with "State Rights". While State rights are part of the equation there are also Federal Rights. Even under Federalism no doubt there would be aspects of abortion that could regulated.
Still I rarely get worked up about this. We go through this every four years if the GOP nominee would support the National Right Amendment. In reality for such a amendment to pass we are going to have change hearts and minds at the local level which means working through State Legislatures. When that happens a Constitutional amendment can be had. Looking at the current pro-life leaning Justices and others on the Court it's clear to me that they don't think the 14th amendment offers that protection for an outright Federal ban. Scalia included.
Update - Carter has a new post up at Abortion, Federalism, and My Conservative Critics
Tuesday, May 10, 2011
Is Federalism The Enemy of the Pro-Life Movement? (Updated)
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2 comments:
At issue here is not states' rights, or even the "rights" and responsibilities of the federal government. What the pro-death side refuses to acknowledge are the natural rights of the BABY with which God endowed that baby and which no human or government or principality rightly can take away but have a solemn duty to secure.
I agree with you. The problem is can there be a "natural Law" jurisprudence attached to the parts of Fed Const. Scalia seems to think no as well as other Catholic and conservative justices.
Of course Hadley Arkes disagrees
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