Life and liberty according to the Supreme Court

"For that one reason among many, the United States will suffer unless there is placed into your government a group that fears the Lord if they cannot love the Lord. They will fear Him and find measures to stop the slaughter of the unborn." - Our Lady of the Roses, April 14, 1984

The Supreme Court, the highest court in the land, was instituted by the Fathers of our country as one of the "checks and balances" to help insure the preservation of rights for the American citizens. But there is a silent voice, that of the unborn child, that is being silenced everywhere by the atrocity of abortion under cover of law. Certainly the founding Fathers never dreamed that such would ever be the case. We've come a long way, but not in the right direction.

Let us go back in time when the seeds of our country's greatness were sown. The year is 1776. Fifty-six great men sign their names to a document that is to give birth to a nation. Standing tall, courageous and unwavering, "For the support of this declaration, with a firm reliance on the protection of the Divine Providence, we mutually pledge to each other, our lives, our fortunes, and our sacred honor." It is the Declaration of Independence, a document that prompted G.K. Chesterton to write, "America is the only nation in the world that is founded on a creed. That creed is set forth with dogmatic and even theological lucidity in the Declaration of Independence." The foundation of our country is set upon these words: "We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights, that among these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness." Yet 200 years previously, St. Robert Bellarmine had penned in a treatise, "all men are created equal."

And certainly the contributions of Catholics during the early years of our nation were by no means small. As written by James Cardinal Gibbons:

In the years prior to the American Revolution, colonists and citizens followed the rule of law brought by British settlers, the 'common law.' It was a set of legal standards established in England through court decisions and legal custom.

"According to Sir William Blackstone, the renowned 18th century English jurist, under common law, the abortion of a 'quickened' fetus was a 'very heinous misdemeanor.' At that time the penalty for misdemeanors could be severe: loss of a limb, confiscation of property or life in prison.
     "'Quickening'-when a pregnant woman first feels her child move-generally occurs in the fourth month. Scholars have noted that the common law requirement of a 'quickened' baby for the crime of abortion was probably based on a very practical consideration. Since there were no pregnancy tests in the 18th century, evidence that a baby's movement had been felt might have been the only way to establish with any certainty in a court of law that a pregnancy had existed.
     "The first U.S. law against abortion, adopted by Connecticut in 1821, criminalized the administration of poison or of any 'destructive substance' to induce a miscarriage. It applied only to cases where the baby had 'quickened.'
     "In 1840, however, Maine became the first state to pass a law that expressly protected all babies, 'quick or not.'"[2]

Formally an oath was taken by doctors called the "Hippocratic Oath" in which the doctor pledged that he would "not aid a women to procure abortion." During the 20th century, however, the medical profession has suffered severe ideological and moral setbacks. But an admirable commitment to life and to the life of the unborn was seen in the mid-19th century, when the newly formed American Medical Association organized physicians and medical societies in support of laws against abortion. An 1859 AMA committee investigating abortion stated in its conclusions that one reason for:

"the frightful extent of [abortion in the U.S.] is found in the grave defects of our laws, both common and statute, as regards the independent and actual existence of the child before birth, as a living being. These errors, which are sufficient in most instances to prevent conviction, are based, and only based, upon mistaken and exploded medical dogmas."[3]

Certainly the moral climate of our country back then was quite different. In fact:

"By 1910, every state except Kentucky had passed an anti-abortion law (and Kentucky's courts had declared abortion at any stage of gestation to be illegal).
"By 1967, not much had changed. In 49 states, abortion was a felony; in New Jersey, it was a high misdemeanor. Furthermore, 29 states banned abortion advertising, and many outlawed the manufacture or distribution of abortifacients.
"In 1967, though, state abortion laws began to change, but only after years of organized campaigns by pro-abortion forces."[4]

But our country was soon to pass into a judicially-induced darkness, from which we have not yet emerged. Under a false notion of liberty, the Supreme Court would divorce God's moral law from the law of the land. George Washington warned of such a fatal separation: "Of all the dispositions and habits which lead to political prosperity, religion and morality are indispensable supports."[5] John Adams likewise remarked, "Our Constitution was made only for a moral and religious people."[6]

The 1973 Supreme Court ruling in Roe v. Wade infamously struck down as unconstitutional the Texas criminal law prohibiting abortion, thereby making ALL state laws prohibiting abortion likewise unconstitutional. In Doe v. Bolton (1973), a companion case to Roe v. Wade, the Court concluded that abortion is constitutionally protected whenever it is necessary to protect a woman's health or well-being. "Health" is defined as "all factors-physical, emotional, psychological, familial, and the woman's age," thereby making abortion legal at any time prior to birth. Justice Harry Blackmun, the Supreme Court Justice who delivered the Court opinion in Roe v. Wade, incredibly stated that the Court "need not resolve the difficulty of when life begins" in its decision. Would Justice Blackmun respond as casually if confronted with a man carrying a gun, who would say to him, "I need not resolve whether this gun pointed at your head has a bullet in it before I pull the trigger"? I think not.

"The fact that a majority of the States reflecting, after all, the majority sentiment in those States, have had restrictions on abortion for at least a century is a strong indication, it seems to me, that the asserted right to an abortion is not 'so rooted in the traditions and conscience of our people as to be ranked as fundamental.'"[7]

The insanity and lack of reasoning in the Roe v. Wade decision continues. In the United States at this moment, the "humanity" of the unborn child and its constitutionally protected rights does not engage until birth, according to the decision of the Supreme Court. As Richard Stith writes, the Justices "would have us believe the child born prematurely at seven months to be a human being, while its more developed cousin in the womb overdue at nine and a half months is still a creature without a fundamental human nature."[8] The constitutionally protected right to life in the United States is protected only for those who are born (and precariously for those who are terminally ill). Even though genetics and ultrasound could easily prove that the unborn child is a human being, the Supreme Court in Roe v. Wade has ruled that a person under the 14th Amendment, Due Process Clause, must be born. Therefore, the fact that we can now scientifically prove that the unborn child is a human being is irrelevant, as constitutional rights engage only after birth.

In fact, today an endangered species has more legal protection than a human being: "Ironically, turtles' eggs, tender prairie grasses, and tiny snail darters protected by earlier courts are legally more secure than human babies in their mothers' wombs."[9] The courts have not only secured rights to animals not afforded to the unborn, they have even afforded recognition to lifeless nature, as stated by the late Justice Douglas in Sierra Club v. Morton (1972), "The voice of the inanimate object should not be stilted."[10] Certainly we are not against the prudent use of natural resources and of the environment, but rather we are against an inversion and annihilation of the rights of the human person, made in the image and likeness of God:

"Providing for environmental needs, caring for injured and sick animals, and protecting the endangered teaches us compassion and responsibility. But there is something dreadfully wrong with a society which treats animals like brothers and human beings like animals."[11]

According to Robert H. Bork, Supreme Court nominee and vocal dissenter from the Roe v. Wade decision, "The Constitution has nothing to say about abortion, leaving it, like most subjects, to the judgment and moral sense of the American people and their elected representatives. Roe and the decisions reaffirming it are equal in their audacity and abuse of judicial office to Dred Scott v. Sandford. Just as Dred Scott forced a southern pro-slavery position on the nation, Roe is nothing more than the Supreme Court's imposition of the morality of our cultural elites."[12]

The clamor of "separation of Church and state" which paved the way for the Roe v. Wade decision, is a grave error which the Church has spoken against. In the encyclical letter Libertas, Pope Leo XIII speaks of the "fatal theory of the need of separation between Church and State." He says, "... since God is the source of all goodness and justice, it is absolutely ridiculous that the State should pay no attention to these laws or render them abortive by contrary enactments." Furthermore, Pope Leo XIII mentions that God's laws and the state should be harmonious:

"This harmony has been not inaptly compared to that which exists between the body and the soul for the well-being of both one and the other, the separation of which brings irremediable harm to the body, since it extinguishes its very life."[13]

Rush Limbaugh also writes, "The separation of church and state in our Constitution is not there to protect Americans from religion. It is there to protect Americans from the government."[14] And with regard to abortion, the Roe vs. Wade decision remains unconstitutional for this reason: "Law repugnant to the Constitution is VOID . . . for I cannot call it law contrary to the first great principles of the social compact . . . (It) cannot be considered a rightful exercise of legislative authority."[15] Thomas Jefferson likewise stated, "Can the liberties of a nation be thought secure when we have removed their only firm basis, a conviction in the minds of the people that their liberties are the gift of God?"

The overturning of such laws will not come unless there is a recognition of the true origin of authority, and the immutability of the moral law. The Church and her moral code should not be considered as a threat to the state but as its greatest and truest ally. Pope Leo XIII writes:

"The Church, if she directs men to render obedience chiefly and above all to God the sovereign Lord, is wrongly and falsely believed either to be envious of the civil power or to arrogate to herself something that what is rightly due to the civil power must be rendered to it with conviction and consciousness of duty. In teaching that from God Himself comes the right of ruling, she adds a great dignity to civil authority, and no small help towards obtaining the obedience and good-will of the citizens."[16]

St. Augustine writes, "But for this reason men think, or would have it believed, that Christian teaching is not suited to the good of the State; for they wish the State to be founded not on solid virtue, but on the impunity of vice." But this was not done overnight. Slowly but ever so effectively the God-centered laws and ideals of this nation have been overturned and done away with. And the great threat to our country lies here, as warned by the U.S. Bishops in 1952, "To the man who is lacking in religious belief, nothing in the end is likely to be sacred, nothing worth preserving. In that direction lies the real danger to our country."[17]

The most important moral and biological issue facing law and society today is the essential definition of human life, which must answer (1) LEGALLY, when a person's constitutional rights are engaged and when they terminate; and (2) MORALLY, the essential aspects of personhood, in which distinction must be made between that which is essential and that which is accidental (those elements which have absolutely no ability of themselves to change, alter, diminish, heighten, etc., the essential nature of the individual person as a human being). Such accidental elements would correspond to Aristotle's accidentals of being (i.e., quality, quantity, etc.) which can never change the essentials of a being. This is important to develop in the bioethical, legal and medical debates surrounding the definition of person as every prejudice/discrimination that has ever been leveled against an individual/group has used one or more of these accidental attributes as a crowbar in an attempt to pry the humanity from that individual/group (i.e., skin color (quality), babies in the womb (where), etc.).

If these two questions are not resolved within our legal system the abortion holocaust will continued unchecked as a constitutionally protected "right", legalized euthanasia will increase, and other legalized murder will result which will be justified under the pretext that such life "was not worth living" (i.e., Justice Steven's dissenting opinion in, Missouri Dept. of Health Cruzan v. Director [18]). The definition of human life will continue its slide down the slippery slope of utilitarianism unless a militantly pro-life campaign can take the reins away from the culture of death, in both the legal and moral spheres. Otherwise, the courts will go forward as aimlessly as ships without rudders. The goal is to do at least what Germany did, when the German Constitutional Court ruled unanimously in 1975 and again in 1993, that the German constitutional right to life must extend throughout pregnancy.[19]

But the other extreme, that of the end of life, must be constitutionally protected as well to overcome the precarious scenario which now reigns in regards to those who are incapacitated, comatose, or in a persistent vegetative state (PVS). The essential definition of human life must be developed in order to insure that "quality" (or any accidental, non-essential attribute) of life not have potential to cancel a person's membership in the human race (legally speaking). Such an essential definition of human life must then be incorporated into a "Human Life Amendment," such as the Garn Amendment, quoted below:

"With respect to the right to life, the word 'person' as used in this Article and in the Fifth and Fourteenth articles of amendment to the Constitution of the United States, applies to all human beings, irrespective of age, health, function, or condition of dependency, including their unborn offspring at every stage of their biological development."[20]

The Holy Father, in an address to Lindy Boggs, Ambassador to the Holy See, stated:

The United States of America was founded on the conviction that an inalienable right to life was a self-evident moral truth, fidelity to which was a primary criterion of social justice. The moral history of your country is the story of your people's efforts to widen the circle of inclusion in society, so that all Americans might enjoy the protection of law, participate in the responsibilities of citizenship, and have the opportunity to make a contribution to the common good. Whenever a certain category of people-the unborn or the sick and old-are excluded from that protection, a deadly anarchy subverts the original understanding of justice. The credibility of the United States will depend more and more on its promotion of a genuine culture of life, and on a renewed commitment to building a world in which the weakest and most vulnerable are welcomed and protected.[21]

1 Cardinal Gibbons, Faith of Our Fathers, pp. 197-198.
2 Brian Young, "Life before Roe: A Brief Survey of U.S. Abortion Law Before the 1973 Decision."
3 ibid.
4 ibid.
5 "Jack Kevorkian... Led Me to Convert to Catholicism," The Wanderer, March 25, 1999, p. 8.
6 ibid., p. 8.
7 Dissenting opinion of Justice Rehnquist, Roe v. Wade, 1973.
8 Richard Stith, "Nominal Babies," First Things, February 1999, p. 17.
9 Human Life Alliance of Minnesota Education Fund, Inc., Euthanasia: Imposed Death, "We Shoot Horses, Don't We?" p. 5, 1999.
10 George J. Marlin, The Politician's Guide to Assisted Suicide, Cloning, and Other Current Controversies, chapter 8.
11 Human Life Alliance of Minnesota Education Fund, Inc., "We Shoot Horses, Don't We?" Euthanasia: Imposed Death, p. 5.
12 Robert H. Bork, "Incovenient Lives," First Things, December 1996, pp. 9-13.
13 Pope Leo XIII, Libertas, #18.
14 Rush Limbaugh, The Way Things Ought to Be, p. 281.
15 U.S. Supreme Court, Marbury v. Madison, 1803.
16 Pope Leo XIII, Humanum Genus.
17 Roman Catholic Bishops of the U.S., 1952. The World Treasury of Religious Quotations, compiled and edited by Ralph L. Woods, Hawthorne Books, Inc., New York City, November 1966.
18 "But for patients like Nancy Cruzan, who have no consciousness and no chance of recovery, there is a serious question as to whether the mere persistence of their bodies is life as that word is commonly understood, or as it is used in both the Constitution and the Declaration of Independence." (dissenting opinion of Justice Stevens in Cruzan vs. Director, Missouri Dept. of Health, 497 U.S. 344 (1990).
19 First Things, "Nominal Babies," Richard Stith, February 1999, p. 19.
20 Garn Amendment (SJR 4, 98th Congress).
21 John Paul II, December 16, 1997, on receiving the credentials of Lindy Boggs as Ambassador of the United States to the Holy See.

The awesome Bayside Prophecies... https://www.tldm.org/Bayside/default.htm
These prophecies came from Jesus, Mary, and the saints to Veronica Lueken at Bayside, NY, from 1968 to 1995:

SIN OF OMISSION
"The sin of omission shall condemn many to hell, be they layman or Hierarchy. I repeat: not the sin of commission, but the sin of omission will commit many to hell. Among them there will be also mitres." - Our Lady, October 6, 1980

THE UNITED STATES SHALL BE FIRST STRUCK
"One of the reasons the Eternal Father chose your city and your state for My appearance was because of abortion, the murder of the holy innocents. Your nation, without repentance, shall be the first struck." - Our Lady, March 15, 1978

THE UNITED STATES SHALL FALL
"How can a great country like the United States fall, you say, My child? You ask Me in your heart. I read your heart. I will tell you why. Because they have given themselves over to satan. When a country has lost its morality and seeks the pleasures of the flesh, giving over, themselves over, to all manner of abominations, like homosexuality, and condoning this up the highest courts of the land, then that country shall fall." - Our Lady of the Roses, November 1, 1985

DOCTORS
"Doctors now are profaning their profession, those who have given themselves over to destroying human life in abortions." - Jesus, June 6, 1987

FOULEST OF DEEDS
"Our hearts are torn because of the wanton murder of the young by evil man. Abortion, My children, is murder, the most foulest of deeds, that is punishable by death! And what is worse than death of the soul?
"I say unto you, as your Mother, that any man or woman who performs or takes part of this abomination of the murder of the unborn shall be given a heavy penance upon earth, or if this penance is not given upon earth, that person found guilty in the eyes of his God shall suffer eternal damnation in the fires of hell." - Our Lady, December 28, 1976

DESTROYED
"All who become part of or condone abortion, the murder of the young, shall be destroyed!" - Jesus, June 2, 1979

HUMAN LIFE IS SACRED
"The Eternal Father command that you stop these murders at once! You will not destroy the lives of the unborn. Human life is sacred in the eyes of your God. No man has the right to destroy a life. The Father, He sends this life to you, and only He will decide when it will return back to the Kingdom.
"Do not, My children, be deceived by the words of the evil ones about you who cry to you of no space left for man. There is space, for My Father has a plan for every life He sends." - Our Lady, August 5, 1971

WILL NEVER BE CONDONED
"You will remember, My children and My child, to guard the young. Your clergy have fallen into darkness. Abortion will never be condoned. But We must have others who fervently will go forward and bring out to the minds of those who have actually seduced the country and the children--bring them the knowledge of Heaven, hell and purgatory. Then they will not have free license to sin." - Our Lady, May 28, 1983

GOVERNMENT
"For that one reason among many, the United States will suffer unless there is placed into your government a group that fears the Lord if they cannot love the Lord. They will fear Him and find measures to stop the slaughter of the unborn." - Our Lady, April 14, 1984

NUNS
"That is what makes My heart ache, My child. That is one of the reasons Theresa is crying constantly when she looks into the convents and sees what is going on. Many now believe in abortion, the murders of the children; and many have committed this act upon themselves." - Jesus, October 1, 1988

SIXTY MILLION
"I say this for this reason: the Eternal Father is much disturbed at the numbers of abortions being committed throughout your country and the world. These numbers go upwards to fifty to sixty million in one year throughout the world." - Our Lady, June 18, 1986

TREATED AS GARBAGE
"O My child, My tears fall upon you all when I see all of the innocent little babies being slaughtered . . . cast into garbage pails like nothing but dirt and scum. They are living human beings! And all murderers shall get their just recompense." - Our Lady, March 18, 1983

BOMBS IN THE UNITED STATES
"These interlopers upon the serenity of the United States have dark skins.... With their plans there will be bombs placed in strategic places and many shall die at the hands of these ruffians....
"One big reason for permitting this disaster in New York would be the abortion mills throughout the city and the country." - Jesus, October 1, 1988

HOLY SPIRIT
"At the time of conception, the Holy Spirit makes the child, and the breath of the Almighty gives it life." - Our Lady, June 18, 1991

LIMBO
"And what, My children, are We going to do with all the aborted babies? O My child, I know you feel as I do, for I can see the great distress on your face. What are We going to do, My child? Do you understand when they come to Us, they must go to Limbo? They are in Heaven, a happy place, but they cannot see God." - Our Lady, October 2, 1987

SORROWFULLY
"Sorrowfully, the penance that is to come upon the world for the murders of the unborn shall be a chastisement far greater in severity than man has ever witnessed in the past nor ever shall pass through again. Your world is plunging into a deep chasm of suffering and destruction." - Our Lady, May 20, 1978

OATH
"Your once loyal to the oath of a doctor, your once loyal doctors are now butchers! For money they kill the young!" - Our Lady, February 10, 1978

WOE TO THE WOMAN
"Know, My child, this simple lesson, that in these days of the latter times, women will seek to cast off their role as mother and a woman. Women will cast it off under the direction of satan, and murder her children. Woe to the woman who does not repent of this vile abomination! She has walked the road to eternal damnation and hell. Repent, O woman, or forever be lost!" - Our Lady, March 18, 1975

"My children, My little humble children, I appeal to you as your Mother, go forward on foot, knock on the doors; bring the light to your brothers and sisters. For those who have been given great grace, much is expected of them." Our Lady of the Roses May 26, 1976

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