A Matter of Conscience and Duty
In the past two elections South Dakota had a monumental fight over whether we would outlaw virtually all abortion. Both then and now we hear from supporters of the killing of the preborn that they are tired of the fight, and we are told that the people, after all, do not want this argument to continue. Some have called pro-lifers extremist and called the right to life an ideal.
Just to give perspective on the nature of that last characterization, the definition of ideals and idealism in the New College Edition of the American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language includes in its definitions of the words ideal and idealist, the words “existing only in the mind,” “imaginary,” and “unrealistic and impractical.” The right to life is not an ideal, it is a founding principle of the United States of America, and it is a foundational principle of all justice and freedom.
South Dakotans voted to reject the 2006 law which was written in support of the law of nature and of nature’s God, which is supported and acknowledged by our Declaration of Independence, our Constitution, and our Bill of Rights. However, the law of nature’s God, in the words “Thou shalt not kill” is not dependent on our approval for its right and force.
William Blackstone wrote in his Commentaries on the Laws of England:
Upon these two foundations, the law of nature and the law of revelation, depend all human laws; that is to say, no human laws should be suffered to contradict these.
He went on to say:
herein it is that human laws have their greatest force and efficacy; for, with regard to such points as are not indifferent, human laws are only declaratory of, and act in subordination to, the former. To instance, in the case of murder: this is expressly forbidden by the divine, and demonstrably by the natural law; and from these prohibitions arises the true unlawfulness of this crime. Those human laws, that annex a punishment to it, do not at all increase it’s moral guilt, or superadd any fresh obligation in foro conscientiae (in the forum or court of conscience) to abstain from it’s perpetration. Nay, if any human law should allow or injoin us to commit it, we are bound to transgress that human law, or else we must offend both the natural and divine.
The moral law on which America is founded does not need human law to make it more legitimate. Blackstone, writing in the 1760’s, defined the law of nature as being the will of the Creator, and the law of revelation the declaration of that will in the Holy Scriptures. The Word of God proclaims the duty of the follower of God to be a good citizen promoting and defending justice and freedom.
As followers of God through Christ, Christians have a duty to promote and live the words of Isaiah 1:17, “Learn to do well; seek judgment, relieve the oppressed, judge the fatherless, plead for the widow.” Each of these last four is a vital part of doing well, or that which is beneficial to our community and nation. Judgment is the rule of law. The Preamble to the Constitution provides the call to do this in the words “establish justice.” The Constitution provides the way to do that through the establishment of the three branches of government.
We are a nation of laws, and their application, and that law is based on the law of revelation, again which Blackstone identified as only being found in the Holy Scriptures. The Ten Commandments in Exodus chapter 20 clearly speaks on this issue of justice in the words, “Thou shalt not kill.” Genesis chapter 9 clearly says that God will hold us accountable for the shedding of blood of our fellow man. The Word of God further teaches that life can only be taken for just cause, and by due process.
Abortion destroys both just cause and due process. South Dakotans were told in this past election that the law banning virtually all abortions was unconstitutional. That is absolutely wrong.
This assertion is based on the idea that the decisions of the United States Supreme Court are the Constitution. They are not any such thing. Our constitutional system of government is based on clearly defined principles laid out in our founding documents. The Declaration of Independence, in laying out the foundation for freedom and justice, and the right to self governance for the American people, gave as that foundation the unalienable rights to Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness. Amendments 5 and 14 to the United States Constitution provide for the protection of these unalienable rights, meaning rights which may not be transferred. The 5th Amendment declares that no “person” may “be deprived of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law.” The 14th Amendment was written in part to require States to provide equal protection under the law to all persons of life, liberty, and property.
The question of “personhood” is the defining question of this issue, not the question of whether privacy has been violated. Pro-choice proponents insist that a “woman’s right to choose” be absolutely protected. They insist that only doctors can tell us when life begins. By advocating that doctors be given that kind of power they literally declare that a special interest group be given an unconstitutional power to determine who is, or is not, a person. If we can take the life of a person at any point before birth, there is no point after birth that killing anyone, either because of birth defects, age, or for behavioral problems, can be reasonably argued against. There are currently bioethicists arguing for the killing of children who are handicapped, and arguing for the “right” of parents to kill their children up through the age of two.
At what point, then, does a woman and her doctor not have the right to decide this question? At what point in a person’s march toward adulthood can we say they are not a person? Do we become a person when we marry and have our own family? Is it when we turn 18? Do we assume the rights of personhood at puberty? At what point in pre-birth development does life begin? At what trimester? It must be at the point at which a person will continue to develop toward adulthood, unless something or someone interferes in that development either by violently taking that life, or by denying the sustenance necessary to continue that life. That point is at conception, because the inexorable march toward adulthood has begun, and that fetus has been proven to already possess its own distinct genetic makeup. A fetus is a person from the moment of conception. Because the United States Supreme Court unconstitutionally granted women and their doctors that authority, nothing is sacred. Life should be; our Declaration of Independence declares it to be so. It is a sacred gift of life from our Creator, and may not be transferred into the hands of anyone without completely dismantling the foundation of all freedom and justice.
Thomas Jefferson
We as Christians are also duty bound to promote and defend freedom. Thomas Jefferson wrote in his Notes on the State of Virginia:
And 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 these liberties are the gift of God? That they are not to be violated but with his wrath? Indeed I tremble for my country when I reflect that God is just: and that his justice cannot sleep forever: that considering numbers, nature and natural means only, a revolution to the wheel of fortune, an exchange of situation, is among possible events: that it may become probable by supernatural interference! The Almighty has no attribute which can take side with us in such a contest.
The context of this quote is an explanation of the degradation of morals, compassion, and liberty in a people who allow slavery, despotism over slaves, and teach it to their children by example, “From the cradle to the grave,” as Jefferson put it. Jefferson went on to write that he hoped for the “total emancipation” of the slaves by the enlightenment of their masters and not by their extirpation. He thought that this would happen as Americans learned better to know and love liberty. Americans today are learning to know and love a culture of death. Those citizens of South Dakota who voted no on referred law 6, have taken the blood of innocents on their hands, and violated the Constitution of the United States. God is just, His justice cannot sleep forever, and I tremble for this State.
Thomas Jefferson wrote in his A Summary View of the Rights of British America that:
The God who gave us life gave us liberty at the same time; the hand of force may destroy, but cannot disjoin them.
Life and liberty are inseparable. However, even the defeat of this law did not do away with the fundamental unlawfulness and criminality of abortion. We should not have needed HB1215. We have laws against murder. We have a Constitution which requires that States provide equal protection under the law of the life, liberty, and property of all persons found within their jurisdiction. Neither government, individuals, nor special interest groups have the right to define when personhood begins without violating the unalienable nature of the right to life. The law attempted nothing except to bring our State into compliance with the federal Constitution. We didn’t need another law. We need public servants in the executive and judicial branches of government with the courage to uphold their oath of office and defy the enemies of life in America. In fact, abortion could be ended right now, if the United States Congress would carry out their Article 3, section 2 authority to deny the right of the Supreme Court to have made their decision in Roe V. Wade, and then demand the States carry out their duty under the law.
Christian ministers were the leaders in the abolitionist movement in the 1800’s that called on government to set things right. There cannot be liberty without life, the two are inseparable. Churches and Christians across this country are duty bound to defend justice and freedom everywhere. We are duty bound to call on law enforcement agencies and prosecutors to fulfill their oath of office to provide equal protection under the law to all persons found within their jurisdiction. They can start by prosecuting abortion under the unalienable right to life, the 5th and 14th Amendments to the Constitution, and the laws against murder in their States.
While it is the duty of those of us who are Christians to do these things, it is the duty of every public official to fulfill their oath of office to support and defend the Constitution against all enemies, foreign and domestic. Those public officials who support abortion are in violation of that oath. The pro choice lobby is one of those enemies of our Constitution. Abortion is un-Constitutional and un-American.
In 1836, abolitionist John Greenleaf Whittier wrote Song of the Free. The last stanza reads: “If we have whispered truth, Whisper no longer; Speak as the tempest does, Sterner and stronger; Still be the tones of truth Louder and firmer, Startling the haughty South With the deep murmur; God and our charter’s right, Freedom for ever! Truce with oppression– Never, oh, never!” During the struggle for the abolition of slavery, there were many who wished people like William Wilberforce in England would go away. He never quit. Slavery was abolished in the British Empire.
We will not stop. We will not quit. We will never abandon this fight, until we see the end of this barbarous, murderous, un-Constitutional practice.
Clark M. Jones is a member of Citizens for Liberty, the group which organized the Rapid City Tax Day Tea Party and the Rapid City Independence Day Tea Party.
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