{"id":1066670,"date":"2021-11-29T23:28:45","date_gmt":"2021-11-30T04:28:45","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=1066670"},"modified":"2021-11-29T23:28:53","modified_gmt":"2021-11-30T04:28:53","slug":"fact-check-law-professor-claims-originalist-argument-for-keeping-right-to-abortion","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/fact-check-law-professor-claims-originalist-argument-for-keeping-right-to-abortion\/","title":{"rendered":"Fact Check: Law Professor Claims \u2018Originalist\u2019 Argument for Keeping Right to Abortion"},"content":{"rendered":"<aside class=\"mashsb-container mashsb-main mashsb-stretched\"><div class=\"mashsb-box\"><div class=\"mashsb-count mash-medium\" style=\"&quot;\"><div class=\"counts mashsbcount\">24<\/div><span class=\"mashsb-sharetext\">SHARES<\/span><\/div><div class=\"mashsb-buttons\"><a class=\"mashicon-facebook mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.conservativenewsdaily.net%2Fbreaking-news%2Ffact-check-law-professor-claims-originalist-argument-for-keeping-right-to-abortion%2F\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Facebook<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-twitter mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/intent\/tweet?text=&amp;url=https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=1066670&amp;via=ConservNewsDly\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Twitter<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-subscribe mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"#\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Subscribe<\/span><\/a><div class=\"onoffswitch2 mash-medium mashsb-noshadow\" style=\"display:none\"><\/div><\/div>\n            <\/div>\n                <div style=\"clear:both\"><\/div><\/aside>\n            <!-- Share buttons by mashshare.net - Version: 4.0.47--><p class=\"subheading\"><strong>CLAIM:<\/strong> Eliminating a right to abortion is not consistent with the Constitution\u2019s original meaning, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonpost.com\/opinions\/2021\/10\/26\/middle-ground-abortion-that-originalists-should-embrace\/\">wrote<\/a> Aaron Tang, professor of law at the University of California at Davis, in a recent op-ed at the <em>Washington Post<\/em>.<\/p>\n<p><strong>VERDICT: False,<\/strong>&nbsp;according to scholars John Finnis, professor emeritus of Law and Legal Philosophy at Oxford University, and Robert P. George, McCormick professor of jurisprudence at Princeton University.<\/p>\n<figure id=\"D-ROS-B1\" class=\"a8d\"><\/figure>\n<figure id=\"M-ROS-B1\" class=\"a8d\"><\/figure>\n<figure id=\"gmxrevmore\" class=\"H\"><\/figure>\n<p>The U.S. Supreme Court will hear opening arguments Wednesday in <em>Dobbs v. Jackson Women\u2019s Health Organization, <\/em>a case that poses the most significant challenge in decades to the right to abortion created by the Court in its 1973 <em>Roe v. Wade<\/em> decision.<\/p>\n<p>In<em> Dobbs<\/em>, which&nbsp;involves a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.breitbart.com\/politics\/2021\/05\/17\/supreme-court-to-hear-historic-mississippi-abortion-case\/\">challenge<\/a> to Mississippi\u2019s Gestational Age Act \u2014 a measure that would ban abortion after 15 weeks of pregnancy \u2014 the Court will decide if state laws banning most&nbsp;abortions are unconstitutional.<\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_17433242\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" readability=\"38\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/11\/supreme-court-abortion-protest-on-demand-pro-life-filephoto-getty.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-17433242\" src=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/11\/supreme-court-abortion-protest-on-demand-pro-life-filephoto-getty.jpg\" alt=\"(FILES) In this file photo Pro-choice and pro-life activists demonstrate in front of the the US Supreme Court during the 47th annual March for Life on January 24, 2020 in Washington, DC. - The United States&#039; Supreme Court on Wednesday will hear what may be its most significant case in decades on the controversial subject of abortion. (Photo by OLIVIER DOULIERY \/ AFP) (Photo by OLIVIER DOULIERY\/AFP via Getty Images)\" width=\"640\" height=\"480\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-caption-text\">In this file photo, Pro-choice and pro-life activists demonstrate in front of the US Supreme Court during the 47th annual March for Life on January 24, 2020, in Washington, DC. (Photo by OLIVIER DOULIERY\/AFP via Getty Images)<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p>In a <em>Newsweek<\/em> op-ed earlier this month, Finnis and George <a href=\"https:\/\/www.newsweek.com\/addressing-originalist-argument-abortion-opinion-1644482\">responded<\/a> to Tang\u2019s argument that, in order to be \u201cfaithful to the Constitution\u2019s original meaning,\u201d the Supreme Court\u2019s conservative justices should not overturn <em>Roe<\/em> because Sir William Blackstone, an 18<sup>th<\/sup>-century jurist whom Tang describes as a \u201c\u2019preeminent\u2019 originalist authority,\u201d wrote \u201cthat abortion is unlawful only after a \u2018woman is quick with child\u2019 because that is when life \u2018begins in contemplation of law.&#8217;\u201d<\/p>\n<figure id=\"M-ROS-B2\" class=\"a8d\"><\/figure>\n<p>Tang claimed the Founders understood abortion to be legal before a \u201cwoman is quick with child,\u201d a reference to \u201cquickening,\u201d the first perceptible movement of the unborn child that typically occurs at 15-16 weeks\u2019 gestation. That understanding, Tang continued, was based upon Blackstone\u2019s writing that life \u201cbegins in contemplation of law\u201d after a \u201cwoman is quick with child.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Finnis and George, however, pointed out Tang\u2019s op-ed at the <em>Post <\/em>followed their 72-page paper highlighting \u201cmore than 50 serious historical errors\u201d in Tang\u2019s previous \u201cmiddle ground\u201d academic <a href=\"https:\/\/papers.ssrn.com\/sol3\/papers.cfm?abstract_id=3921358\">article<\/a> upon which his op-ed was based.<\/p>\n<p>They noted:<\/p>\n<blockquote readability=\"10\">\n<p>Tang contested none of those errors, but accepted many of our charges silently, ignored many, confessed to a couple and replaced some with new ones awaiting yet another refutation. The&nbsp;<em>Post&nbsp;<\/em>op-ed relies on the errors that remain.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p>\u201cThe argument that Blackstone establishes a common-law right to pre-quickening abortion is wrong,\u201d Finnis and George wrote. \u201cSo is the claim that\u2014at the time they ratified the 14th Amendment establishing \u2018equal protection of the laws\u2019 for all persons\u2014most states only opposed abortion after quickening, if at all.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Tang observed the pro-life argument that, when the 14<sup>th<\/sup> Amendment, through which the Supreme Court created the right to abortion, was ratified in 1868, 27 of the then-37 states banned abortion entirely.<\/p>\n<figure id=\"M-ROS-B3\" class=\"a8d adSo\"><\/figure>\n<p>\u201cThis claim is wrong, <a href=\"https:\/\/archive.fo\/o\/fW7rP\/https:\/papers.ssrn.com\/sol3\/papers.cfm?abstract_id=3921358\">grounded<\/a> on a series of historical errors,\u201d he stated, arguing that originalists should be able to find \u201ca middle ground\u201d between <em>Roe<\/em>\u2019s viability standard at 24 weeks and a prohibition on abortion from conception.<\/p>\n<p>Finnis and George observed, nevertheless:<\/p>\n<figure id=\"D-ROS-B2\" class=\"a8d\"><\/figure>\n<blockquote readability=\"14\">\n<p>States began to prohibit pre-quickening abortion in the 1820s, and accelerated through the 1840s and 1850s. By 1858 a majority of states had statutes criminalizing abortion at all stages. By the end of 1868, the year the 14th Amendment was ratified, a good three-quarters of the states had them. (By 1883, all but two or three, and eventually all, adopted such laws.) Tang\u2019s claim that at ratification 21 of 37 states \u201crecognized the lawfulness of pre-quickening abortion\u201d is simply false.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<div id=\"attachment_17834586\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" readability=\"36\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/11\/GettyImages-1233172300.png\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-17834586\" src=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/11\/GettyImages-1233172300.png\" alt=\"Pro-life protesters stand near the gate of the Texas state capitol at a protest outside the Texas state capitol on May 29, 2021 in Austin, Texas. Thousands of protesters came out in response to a new bill outlawing abortions after a fetal heartbeat is detected signed on Wednesday by Texas Governor Greg Abbot. (Photo by Sergio Flores\/Getty Images)\" width=\"640\" height=\"480\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-caption-text\">Pro-life protesters stand near the gate of the Texas state capitol at a protest outside the Texas state capitol on May 29, 2021, in Austin, Texas. (Photo by Sergio Flores\/Getty Images)<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p>The legal scholars explained the significance of the details of the \u201cquickening\u201d argument in that \u201cthey help reveal what states understood \u2018person\u2019 to mean when they ratified the 14<sup>th<\/sup>Amendment.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWhen the 14th Amendment said \u2018nor shall any state deny to any person \u2026 the equal protection of the laws,\u2019 the word \u2018person\u2019 had a settled public meaning for its drafters and ratifiers,\u201d they noted. \u201cThat meaning certainly included, among \u2018natural persons,\u2019 any child living in the womb\u2014and among \u2018artificial persons,\u2019 corporations.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Finnis and George summarized the premise of their own amicus <a href=\"https:\/\/www.supremecourt.gov\/DocketPDF\/19\/19-1392\/185196\/20210729093557582_210169a%20Amicus%20Brief%20for%20efiling%207%2029%2021.pdf\">brief<\/a> in <em>Dobbs<\/em>:<\/p>\n<figure id=\"M-ROS-B4\" class=\"a8d adSo\"><\/figure>\n<blockquote readability=\"9\">\n<p>The Supreme Court, after nearly 20 years, accepted that corporations are entitled to equal protection under the 14th Amendment; it now should accept that&nbsp;<em>Roe<\/em>&nbsp;was wrong to hold that unborn children are not entitled to the same.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p>Citing the importance of Blackstone\u2019s writings, Finnis and George, however, crushed Tang\u2019s claim the revered jurist \u201cwrote that abortion is unlawful only after a \u2018woman is quick with child\u2019\u201d:<\/p>\n<blockquote readability=\"13\">\n<p>The partly quoted sentence from Blackstone says something very different in context: that under the old common law, \u201cif a woman is quick with child, and by a potion, or otherwise, killeth it in her womb \u2026 whereby \u2026 she is delivered of a dead child, this \u2026 was \u2026 homicide or manslaughter. But at present it is \u2026 [only] a very heinous misdemeanour.\u201d Here Blackstone says nothing whatsoever about abortion being lawful before a woman is \u201cquick with child.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p>The legal scholars continued that Blackstone identified abortion, at any time during pregnancy, as a form of felony that could draw a felony murder conviction.<\/p>\n<p>In one example, they noted that Blackstone, citing 17<sup>th<\/sup>-century English scholar chief justice Matthew Hale, said, \u201cunequivocally that abortion measures taken at any stage of pregnancy are always \u2018unlawful,\u2019 even though early abortions are not also indictable (i.e., subject to criminal penalties) unless the abortion drugs, pressures or instruments happen to kill the mother or \u2026 result in the child dying after birth.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cSo any talk of a right to abortion at the Founding, and of pre-quickening abortions being permissible until the reforming state statutes of 1829-1883, is fantasy,\u201d Finnis and George concluded.<\/p>\n<p>The case is <em>Dobbs v. Jackson Women\u2019s Health Organization,&nbsp;<\/em>No. 19-1392 in the Supreme Court of the United States.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>CLAIM: Eliminating a right to abortion is not consistent with the Constitution\u2019s original meaning, wrote Aaron Tang, professor of law at the University of California at Davis, in a recent &#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":40,"featured_media":2315279,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":"","fifu_image_url":"","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1066670","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1066670","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/40"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1066670"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1066670\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2315279"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1066670"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1066670"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1066670"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}