A One-Vote Oddity
In 1973, The Vote Was 7-2. In 1986, the Vote Was 5-4. In 2010?
In the 1973 Supreme Court decision Roe v. Wade, a Texas law banning abortion was struck down making abortion legal in all 50 states. By a vote of 7-2, the ruling in that original case made abortion legal through the second trimester of pregnancy. Another less known case that same year, titled Doe v. Doe, made abortion legal all the way up to birth and is relevant to the partial birth abortion debate of the present day.
In 1986, the Supreme Court ruled on a Pennsylvania law requiring doctors to tell patients of the possible detrimental physical and psychological effects of abortion and to provide information related to agencies that could help if the patient opted to give birth. By a 5-4 vote, the law was struck down.
Abortion advocates counted the vote as a success, but abortion opponents rejoiced that the margin was only one vote. Right-to-life supporters were also encouraged by the language of the dissenters.
Chief Justice Warren Burger called the ruling in the Pennsylvania case “astonishing” and suggested that Roe v Wade (which he had supported in 1973) should be “reexamined.” In another dissent, Justice Byron White, joined by Justice William Rehnquist, described the 1973 decision as “fundamentally misguided” and urged that it be overturned. Justice Sandra Day O’Connor echoed this philosophy when she said that Roe v. Wade had proved “unworkable.”57
Both the advocates for abortion and those opposed to abortion drew the same conclusion from the shrinking margin of support for Roe v. Wade: a one vote shift in the Supreme Court could make abortion illegal again. Proverbs 24:11 shows us the path of our responsibility:
Deliver those who are being taken away to death,
And those who are staggering to slaughter,
Oh hold them back!
Think about the make up of the Supreme Court when you cast your vote. It may be the most important thought you have.
Footnotes
57. Lindop, 122.
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