A protest outside of the U.S. Supreme Court on June 24, 2024, to mark two years since the Court’s Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization ruling, which reversed federal protections for access to abortions. (Anna Moneymaker / Getty Images) |
BY CARRIE N. BAKER | Since 1984, the Republican National Committee (RNC) has held a platform that includes support for an “amendment to the Constitution and legislation to make clear that the 14th Amendment’s protections apply to children before birth.” On Monday, mainstream media reported that the RNC was moderating its position on abortion at the behest of Donald Trump by omitting this explicit call for passage of a national ban, which would require amending the Constitution and passing congressional legislation.
The language of the platform maintains the party’s longstanding position that the Constitution’s 14th Amendment extends rights to fetuses—an interpretation that Republicans are already asking the Republican-stacked Supreme Court to adopt. They don’t need a new constitutional amendment or act of Congress when they have a stacked Supreme Court ready to interpret the current Constitution to ban abortion nationwide.
In Dobbs, the Supreme Court referred to “unborn human beings” 23 times, laying the groundwork for fetal personhood.
“Once you say that it is an ‘unborn human being,’ then it’s a short step to saying that laws allowing abortion are unconstitutional because they deny equal protection to those persons that are unborn human beings,” said Berkeley Law School dean Erwin Chemerinsky. “I believe that there may be a majority on the Court to take that position.”
Georgetown Law professor Michele Bratcher Goodwin noted that in Dobbs, the Supreme Court ignored the 14th Amendment’s definition of citizens as “persons born … in the United States,” which appeared in the first sentence.
“That’s very explicit. That’s very clear,” said Goodwin. “The Constitution does not mention embryos, fetuses or ‘unborn human beings.’” (Click here to read more) |
