Authored by John & Nisha Whitehead via The Rutherford Institute,
The federal government needs to play god.
It needs the facility to determine who lives or dies and whose rights are worthy of safety.
Abortion should be entrance and middle within the energy wrestle between the Left and the Proper over who has the precise to determine—the federal government or the person—with regards to bodily autonomy, the precise to privateness, sexual freedom, the rights of the unborn, and property pursuits in a single’s physique, however there’s a lot extra at play.
Within the 50-plus years because the U.S. Supreme Court docket issued its landmark ruling in Roe v. Wade, the federal government has come to consider that it not solely has the facility to find out who’s deserving of constitutional rights within the eyes of the regulation nevertheless it additionally has the authority to disclaim these rights to an American citizen.
That is how the abortion debate has performed into the police state’s fingers: by laying the groundwork for discussions about who else might or is probably not deserving of rights.
Regardless of the Supreme Court docket having overturned its earlier rulings recognizing abortion as a constitutional proper below the Fourteenth Modification, the federal government continues to play quick and free with the lives of the citizenry all alongside the spectrum of life.
Take a very good, onerous take a look at the numerous methods by which Individuals are being denied their rights below the Structure.
American households who’ve their canines shot, their properties trashed and their youngsters terrorized or, worse, killed by errant SWAT team raids in the midst of the night time are being denied their rights below the Structure.
Disabled individuals who are being strip searched, handcuffed, arrested and “recognized” by police as harmful or mentally unstable merely as a result of they stutter and stroll erratically are being denied their rights below the Structure.
Faculty-aged youngsters as younger as 4-years-old who’re leg shackled, handcuffed and strip searched for violating school zero tolerance policies by chewing a Pop Tart into the shape of a gun and enjoying an imaginary recreation of cops and robbers, or participating in infantile conduct resembling crying or leaping are being denied their rights below the Structure.
Unarmed citizens who are tasered or shot by police for daring to hesitate, stutter, transfer a muscle, flee or disagree in any means with a police order are being denied their rights below the Structure.
Likewise, Individuals—younger and outdated alike—who’re shot by police because they pointed a garden hose at a police officer, reached for his or her registration of their glove field, relied upon a cane to regular themselves, or had been seen enjoying with air rifles or BB weapons are being denied their rights below the Structure.
Feminine motorists who’re unfortunate sufficient to be pulled over for a questionable visitors infraction solely to be subjected by police to cavity searches by the side of the road are being denied their rights below the Structure.
Male pedestrians and motorists alike who’re being subjected to roadside strip searches and rectal probes by police based mostly largely on the colour of their pores and skin are being denied their rights below the Structure.
American citizens subjected to government surveillance whereby their cellphone calls are being listened in on, their mail and textual content messages learn, their actions tracked and their transactions monitored are being denied their rights below the Structure.
Householders who’re being fined and arrested for elevating chickens of their yard, allowing the grass in their front yards to grow too long, and holding Bible research of their properties are being denied their rights below the Structure.
Adorned army veterans who’re being arrested for criticizing the government on social media resembling Fb are being denied their rights below the Structure.
Homeless people who’re being harassed, arrested and run out of cities by laws that criminalize homelessness are being denied their rights below the Structure.
People whose DNA has been forcibly collected and entered into federal and state law enforcement databases whether or not or not they’ve been convicted of any crime are being denied their rights below the Structure.
Drivers whose license plates are being scanned, uploaded to a police database and used to map their movements, whether or not or not they’re suspected of any crime, are being denied their rights below the Structure. The identical goes for drivers who are being ticketed for running afoul of red light cameras with none actual alternative to defend themselves in opposition to such a cost are being denied their rights below the Structure.
Protesters and activists who are being labeled domestic terrorists and extremists and accused of hate crimes for talking freely are being denied their rights below the Structure. Likewise, Americans who being targeted for assassination by drone strikes abroad with out having been charged, tried and convicted of treason are being denied their rights below the Structure.
Arduous-working Individuals whose bank accounts, homes, cars electronics and cash are seized by police (working in response to asset forfeiture schemes that present revenue incentives for freeway theft) are being denied their rights below the Structure.
So, what’s the widespread denominator right here?
These are all Americans—endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights, rights that no individual or authorities can take away from them, amongst these the precise to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness—and they’re all being oppressed in a method or one other by a authorities that has grown drunk on energy, cash and its personal authority.
If the federal government—be it the President, Congress, the courts or any federal, state or native agent or company—can determine that any individual has no rights, then that individual turns into lower than a citizen, lower than human, lower than deserving of respect, dignity, civility and bodily integrity. She or he turns into an “it,” a faceless quantity that may be tallied and tracked, a quantifiable mass of cells that may be discarded with out conscience, an expendable price that may be written off with no second thought, or an animal that may be purchased, offered, branded, chained, caged, bred, neutered and euthanized at will.
It’s a slippery slope that justifies all method of violations within the title of nationwide safety, the curiosity of the state and the so-called higher good.
But those that based this nation believed that what we conceive of as our rights got to us by God—we’re created equal, in response to the nation’s founding doc, the Declaration of Independence—and that authorities can not create, nor can it extinguish our God-given rights. To take action could be to anoint the federal government with god-like powers and elevate it above the citizenry.
Sadly, we’ve got been dancing with this specific satan for fairly a while now.
If we proceed to attend for the federal government to revive our freedoms, respect our rights, rein in its abuses and restrain its brokers from using roughshod over our lives, our liberty and our happiness, then we shall be ready without end.
The extremely politicized tug-of-war over abortion won’t resolve the issue of a tradition that values life based mostly on a sliding scale. Nor will it assist us navigate the ethical, moral and scientific minefields that await us as know-how and humanity transfer ever nearer to some extent of singularity.
Humanity is being propelled at warp velocity into an entire new frontier with regards to privateness, bodily autonomy, and what it means to be a human being. As such, we haven’t even begun to wrap our heads round how present-day authorized debates over bodily autonomy, privateness, vaccine mandates, the loss of life penalty, and abortion play into future discussions about singularity, synthetic intelligence, cloning, and the privateness rights of the person within the face of more and more invasive, intrusive and unavoidable authorities applied sciences.
But here’s what I do know.
Life is an inalienable proper.
By permitting the federal government to determine who or what’s deserving of rights, it shifts the complete dialogue from one by which we’re “endowed by our Creator with sure inalienable rights” (that of life, liberty property and the pursuit of happiness) to 1 by which solely these favored by the federal government get to take pleasure in such rights.
If all individuals are created equal, then all lives needs to be equally worthy of safety.
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