In a democracy, the majority is king. That’s the trademark of a democracy. But should all decisions be left to the voters to decide?
The Florida Supreme Court has placed the case of abortion rights on the ballot, allowing voters to decide whether to enshrine abortion rights in the Constitution. In its ruling on Monday, the Florida Supreme Court upheld the existing law to ban abortion after 15 weeks. It thereby cleared the way for the six-week ban to take effect starting May 1. The six-week ban excludes rape, incest, fatal fetal abnormalities, and threat to the life of the mother. But by allowing the proposed Constitutional amendment to appear on the ballot, the ban is now potentially reversible in a matter of just 9 months.
Examining Florida’s Abortion Rights: Balancing Morality, Politics, and Justice
“We decline to encroach on the prerogative to amend their constitution that the people have reserved to themselves,” the court said as it rejected the petition of antiabortionists to prevent the amendment from going on the ballot in November. How reasonable is the provision to hand over the specter to citizens in decisions on fundamental concepts of the Constitution? Particularly when it comes to matters involving morality and the right to life. Looking at past elections, it would be safe to say that the majority leans towards antiabortion. For Trump and the Republicans, this might change the fate of their election results.
Trump, well aware of this, has been dancing around the GOP’s position on the issue. When asked if he would sign a 15-week national abortion ban, Trump had no straight answer, stating simply that he would make negotiations that would make people happy. He failed to make a convincing case for either side, which we are not sure will help the party.
The question of abortion rights is essentially a moral one. It doesn’t have to have anything to do with religion. The question we need to ask ourselves is, what takes precedence– the right of a pregnant woman to take control over her body, or the right to life of the unborn child? Does unborn mean unalive? Fetuses develop heartbeats as early as 6 weeks into gestation. This should be evidence enough to surmise that the fetus has a life of its own at this stage. In fact, medical science knows that the heart begins to form in a fetus at around 3 weeks. Let’s also not forget that the killing of an unborn baby by a perpetrator by injury to the mother is a crime in Florida that amounts to manslaughter.
The statute, surprisingly, gives the mother the “right” to commit the same offense without consequences. “Any person, other than the mother, who unlawfully kills an unborn child by any injury to the mother..is punishable.” says the law. It is not uncommon to see people call for a double murder conviction when a pregnant woman is murdered and it results in the death of the unborn baby too. Many of them, however, resort to this double standard when it comes to abortion by denying the right of the child to its life. Suddenly, the growing fetus’s right to life is overlooked. For a lot of feminists and pro-abortionists, taking away the option of abortion amounts to an infringement on a female’s right and autonomy over her body.
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Another argument from pro-abortionists is regarding the future of a child born against the will of its mother. The mother’s material, individual, and mental capacity to take care of and provide for the child is cited as justification for terminating the pregnancy in the better interest of the child given his uncertain future. This case is however no different from that of any child growing up in an environment of parental or societal challenges. Common sense dictates to us that murder is not the solution here, as it shouldn’t be in the case of a fetus as well. Here, while the cause can be justified, the solution doesn’t seem to be. So what is the solution? The solution is to look for alternative solutions that serve justice to the mother as well as protect the life of the child. Instead of politicizing such issues, we as a collective need to rethink our convictions, look beyond our ideologies, dive deeper into our consciences, and unearth the real values we stand for.