End the Morally and Constitutionally Indefensible: Roe Must Go

By Robert P. George


First Things—Lynn Fitch, the attorney general of Mississippi, faces the most consequential litigation decision of the last 50 years: whether to ask the Supreme Court to reverse Roe v. Wade, the 1973 case that created a right to elective abortion, striking down abortion prohibitions that had long been in place in the states.

She should do exactly that. Roe must go. It is morally and, more to the point for the Court, constitutionally indefensible—and has been from the moment it was handed down.

Moreover, the statute Attorney General Fitch is defending, her state’s law prohibiting elective abortion after 15 weeks of gestation, cannot logically be defended without asking the Court to overturn Roe and the most important case following upon it, Planned Parenthood v. Casey. That is so for the simple reason that the statute is flatly inconsistent with those decisions.

On top of that, of course, the attorney general professes to be a supporter of the pro-life cause, and Roe has long been the greatest obstacle to the advancement of that cause.

The pro-life movement is founded upon two premises. The first is moral: that every human being, born or unborn, possesses inherent and equal dignity and an inalienable right to life. The second is legal: that there is no constitutional right to elective abortion on any responsible reading of our national charter; that this “right” was unconstitutionally fabricated by the… read more>>

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