New Book Focuses on Second Abortion Battle – Life After Roe v. Wade Overturned

National   |   Steven Ertelt   |   Sep 9, 2008   |   9:00AM   |   WASHINGTON, DC

New Book Focuses on Second Abortion Battle – Life After Roe v. Wade Overturned

by Steven Ertelt
LifeNews.com Editor
September 9
, 2008

Washington, DC (LifeNews.com) — If the Supreme Court ever reverses the Roe v. Wade decision that allowed virtually unlimited abortions, that would only be the beginning of a larger battle. Pro-life advocates would have to wage 50 state battles to prohibit all or most abortions and a new analysis suggests that would be an uphill fight.

Noted pro-life attorney Paul Linton, a special counsel for the Thomas More Society, a Chicago-based pro-life law firm, explores these issues in his new book "Abortion Under State Constitutions."

The book dispels the notion that overturning Roe vs. Wade would make abortion illegal throughout the U.S.

Instead, in a post-Roe America, the focus of legal and political debate would merely shift to new and relatively unfamiliar battlegrounds: the courts and legislatures of each of our fifty states.

There, legal skirmishes about state-based abortion rights already have been fought, or will break out sooner rather than later.

Linton’s new book provides the first full-length analysis of the relevant constitutional issues in this newest phase of our ongoing, nationwide "abortion wars."

Unfortunately for pro-life advocates, Linton tells LifeNews.com the pro-abortion side has a leg up on the pro-life movement.

"Abortion advocates have undertaken a long-term, national strategy to persuade state supreme courts to recognize abortion rights under state constitutions," he says. "They have already succeeded in twelve states, including several of our most populous states, where more than half of all abortions in the country are performed."

"The book reviews those decisions and, more importantly, it provides a comprehensive analysis and evaluation of the arguments that are likely to be made in the remaining thirty-eight states," he explained.

According to Linton’s carefully-researched new book, more than one-half of all the abortions performed in the United States each year would still be "constitutionally protected" even if Roe v. Wade is overruled.

Moreover, more than three-fourths of the states have repealed their pre-Roe laws prohibiting all or most abortions, which would not be revived by a decision overruling Roe.

Tom Brejcha, president & chief counsel of Chicago’s Thomas More Society, tells LifeNews.com the book should be a wake-up call to the pro-life movement showing the reversal of Roe is just a first step.

He also calls on pro-life advocates to work in every state to prepare for the day when Roe is overturned so women and unborn children can be protected quickly.

"Paul’s book is a road map for the pro-life movement in every state of the nation," he said.

"We must prepare to stand up against an epidemic of state constitutional decisions, or mini-Roe’s, that would threaten to wipe out even modest abortion restrictions and pave the way for new onslaughts of abortion-on-demand," he said.

 

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