By Dennis Hicks, Hamilton
The abortion debate is not a scientific controversy nor a legal battle; it is a moral issue.
On one side of the debate are those that believe abortion is morally wrong, the other side does not. Both sides want public policy and laws that reflect their moral views.
During the Lincoln-Douglas debates in 1858, the Democratic Senate candidate from Illinois, Stephen Douglas, argued that slavery was a legal issue, that each state should decide for itself concerning slavery. Douglas gained the upper-hand in the debates until Abraham Lincoln began to argue that slavery was a moral issue, not a legal issue.
In 1857, just a year before the debates, the Supreme Court decided the Dred Scott case, which denied the rights of U.S. citizenship to the black race. This made the slavery controversy a legal issue of judicial precedence.
DOUGLAS – “I hold that New York had as much right to abolish slavery as Virginia has to continue it, and that each and every state of the union is a sovereign power, with a right to do as it pleases upon the question of slavery …”
LINCOLN – “The real issue in this controversy—the one pressing upon every mind—is the sentiment on the part of one class that looks upon the institution of slavery as a wrong and of another class that does not look upon it as wrong… Because we think it wrong, we propose a course of policy that shall deal with it as a wrong.”
With legal precedence and the Constitutional support of states’ sovereignty on his side, Douglas’ arguments were winning the day, and it appeared that he would likely be elected the Senator from Illinois, and the shame of slavery in America would likely become permanent.
It was Lincoln’s realization that slavery, like abortion, is a moral issue that must ultimately reflect the moral values of the American people. Lincoln’s moral arguments turned the tide and resulted in Lincoln, and the new Republican Party, prevailing in the election.
The current abortion controversy is not over fetus person-hood or viability, nor over Roe v. Wade’s “stare decisis” (“stand by things decided”). Abortion is a moral issue that will ultimately reflect the moral values of the American people.
Roe v. Wade is abortion’s Dred Scott ruling. If we stand up for our traditional American values; if we will prove the abortion debate is a moral issue, then Roe v. Wade will likely go the way of Dred Scott. If we remain silent, or attempt to argue the scientific or legal issues of abortion, it is more likely the shame of abortion will become permanent in America.