Scalia on Abortion
- Posted by Justin Higgins on April 24th, 2008 in
I've been having a debate with a friend of mine about whether or not Justice Scalia's recent statements are Conservative or more moderate than we've known Scalia to be. First, in case you missed the comments, FOX News has a brief summary:
WASHINGTON — The Constitution doesn't prohibit abortion any more than it allows it, Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia says in a television news interview to be broadcast Sunday.
Scalia told CBS News' "60 Minutes" that he may be conservative, but he is not biased on issues that come before the court. "I mean, I confess to being a social conservative, but it does not affect my views on cases," Scalia said in excerpts released Thursday.
"On the abortion thing, for example, if indeed I were ... trying to impose my own views, I would not only be opposed to Roe versus Wade, I would be in favor of the opposite view, which the anti-abortion people would like to see adopted, which is to interpret the Constitution to mean that a state must prohibit abortion," Scalia told correspondent Lesley Stahl.
"And you're against that?" Stahl asked.
Scalia replied, "Of course. There's nothing" (in the Constitution to support that view).
My friend, in his debate, is saying that the General Welfare Clause of the Constitution gives the government power to ban abortion for society's general welfare (and theoretically levy taxes to pay for the enforcement of the ban). Unfortunately, he's relying on the old liberal argument that the clause grants government power, when in all honesty it's a descriptor that limits power. I think in this case, Scalia is right, and abortion will either need to be handled by individual states banning the practice after the overturning of Roe, or a Constitutional amendment. I'd take either.
society's general welfare?
I think society's general welfare is only helped by a strong policy of abortion. Let the poor and the weak-willed stay out of the parenting game. Until every orphanage and group home in this country is empty, be happy they aren't being filled further by more unwanted kids.
You people need to walk around a mall on a Saturday night, look around and honestly say to yourself, 'Wouldn't this be a much nicer place is half the kids here had never been born?'
And Prohibition worked out real good, as do current drug laws. Create an underground economy where the wealthy can get abortions safely and the poor make do with the scraps of coat-hangers and no-longer licensed doctors. Just like it was when abortion was illegal.
It is conservative
As usual, you are insightful beyond your years. For most of the country's history, it was understood that if one wanted the federal government to outlaw something, it would have to be done through an amendment. Indeed, that is precisely how Prohibition happened.
Sadly, the last 70 years have not been kind to that interpretation.