Personhood: Beyond Roe and Doe

8/3/2019 Personhood: Beyond Roe and Doe

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Justice Harry Blackmun

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A Weekly Column By Walter B. Hoye II

Conflict Of

Interest

In the abortion debate, is there a "Conflict of Interest"within the Black community and among her leaders?

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Personhood: Beyond Roe and Doe

It's Not About Roe v. Wade

"The late Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States, Harry Andrew Blackmun, best known as the

author of the Roe v Wade, was a determined advocate for the decision wrote the Court's opinion." Harold Andrew

Blackmun (November 12, 1908-March 4, 1999)

Roe v. Wade was a controversial landmark decision

by the United States Supreme Court on the issue of

abortion. The Court decided that a right to privacy

under the due process clause in the Fourteenth

Amendment to the United States Constitution

extends to a woman's decision to have an

abortion. 1 Doe v. Bolton, was another landmark

decision by the United States Supreme Court

overturning the abortion law of Georgia. 2 Here the

Court's opinion in Doe v. Bolton stated that a

woman may obtain an abortion after viability, if

necessary to protect her health. Both Supreme

Court decisions were released on January 22, 1973.Sitting United States Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg was

appointed to the Court in 1993 by President Bill Clinton and is the second

woman to serve on the Supreme Court, after Justice Sandra Day O'Connor.

Here are her comments regarding the United States Supreme Court Roe v.

Wade decision: "Frankly I had thought that at the time Roe was decided, there

was concern about population growth and particularly growth in populations

that we don't want to have too many of." 3 Eliminating minority populations is

what abortion is all about. However, overturning Roe v. Wade is not an effort


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2003 Roe v. Wade Rally

supported by Black America.


(Part 1 of 3) "In a passionate letter, published in Ms. Magazine and distributed in leaflets all around the country, Donna

Brazile, Byllye Avery, Shirley Chisholm, Julianne Malveaux, Jewell Jackson McCabe, Eleanor Holmes Norton, C. Delores

Tucker all pleaded for understanding and conversation around the subject of abortion. They wrote: We understand why

African-American women risked their lives then and why they seek safe, legal abortion now. It's been a matter of

survival " Latoya Peterson, "Blacks and Roe v. Wade, The Root, Posted: January 21st, 2010 (http://wapo.st/7ey0fY)

Since 1973 we have suffered the death of over 55

million babies, over 20 million of those Black

American and counting. Black America is the

abortion industries #1 target and #1 customer. 4 As

Black American's we abort our children at such

staggering rates that our future is at risk. Black

American's consistently and with no end in sight,

elect abortion supporters at every level of

government. Black American's overwhelmingly support our President who is

willing to shut down the entire government to protect the funding of Planned

Parenthood (the largest abortion provider in the country) with tax-payer dollarsand stand ready to reelect him in 2012. It is Black America's support forRoe

v. Wade that lends Planned Parenthood an illegitimate air of credibility as an

organization that understands and meets the needs of minority women facing

a difficult decision. This is the reason why it is so hard to defund Planned

Parenthood. Any politician who votes to defund Planned Parenthood will be

viewed as racist and misogynistic and in turn face serious reelection issues.

So why doesn't Black America support the efforts to overturn Roe v. Wade, a

Supreme Court decision that's easily one of the worst decisions the Court has

ever made? 5


(Part 2 of 3) " Hunger and homelessness. Inadequate housing and income to properly provide for themselves and

their children. Family instability. Rape. Incest. Abuse. Too young, too old, too sick, too tired. Emotional, physical, mental,

economic, social " Latoya Peterson, "Blacks and Roe v. Wade, The Root, Posted: January 21st, 2010

(http://wapo.st/7ey0fY)

Today, it's been almost 155 years since the Dred Scott decision and yet

America still hasn't nailed down personhood for all.

Here's the timeline:

1857:Dred Scott Decision.

The Supreme Court decision that held that Black Americans could not be citizens

of the United States of America.

1860:Abraham Lincoln elected President.

The election of Abraham Lincoln, arguably the first Republican President of the


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United States of American, changed the game. However, even after Lincoln's

victory and his now famous campaign debates and speeches that opposed the

expansion of slavery in the United States, southern slave states declared

secession.

1861-1865:American Civil War.

After a Civil War that produced about 1,030,000 casualties (3% of the United

States population at that time), including about 620,000 soldier deaths (two-thirds

of which were by disease) it was still necessary to adopt federal amendments to

recognize the personhood of Black Americans.

1863:Emancipation Proclamation.

This executive order that did not make the ex-slaves, called Freedmen, citizens but

(Thank God!) at least declared Black Americans a free people.

1865:Thirteenth Amendment.

While the Thirteenth Amendment abolished slavery, a legal strategy used to

violently oppress Black Americans, it did not make "Freedmen" and "Freedwomen"

citizens.

1866:Civil Rights Act.

The Civil Rights Act of 1866, was a federal law that was intended to protect the

Civil Rights of Black Americans, in the wake of the American Civil War. It was

enacted by Congress over the veto of Democratic President Andrew Johnson.

1868:Fourteenth Amendment.

The Fourteenth Amendment was a "Reconstruction Amendment" that provided a

definition of citizenship that overruled the Supreme Court's 1857 Dred Scott

decision by using the term person three (3) times in Section 1 alone.


This Republican backed bill guaranteed that everyone, regardless of race, color, or

previous condition of servitude, was entitled to the same treatment in "public

accommodations" (i.e. inns, public conveyances on land or water, theaters, and

other places of public amusement).

1896:Homer Plessy decision.

Homer Plessy was arrested, tried and convicted of violating one of Louisiana's

racial segregation laws based on the malevolent doctrine of "Separate But Equal."


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Like slavery this strategy redefined the definition of personhood of Black Americans

guaranteed by the Fourteenth Amendment.

1954:Brown v. Board of Education Decision.

This decision dismantled racial segregation in the United States, but the Supreme

Court again retreated from it's own decision by approving the far reaching Pupil

Placement Laws. 6


The Civil Rights Act of 1964 emulated the rarely enforced Civil Rights Act of 1875.

It ended unequal application of voter registration requirements and racial

segregation in schools, at the workplace and by facilities that served the general

public ("public accommodations").

1973:Roe v. Wade and Doe v. Bolton.

The Court decided that a right to privacy under the due process clause in the

Fourteenth Amendment that prohibits state and local governments from depriving

persons of life, liberty, or property without certain steps being taken to ensure

fairness, extends to a woman's decision to have the life of the child in her womb

aborted through all nine months of pregnancy.


(Part 3 of 3) " the reasons for not carrying a pregnancy to term are endless and varied, personal, urgent and private.

And for all these pressing reasons, African-American women once again will be among the first forced to risk their lives if

abortion is made illegal." Latoya Peterson, "Blacks and Roe v. Wade, The Root, Posted: January 21st, 2010(http://wapo.st/7ey0fY)

In the mind of Black America, Roe v. Wade, is at

best America's way of providing a "socioeconomic

safety net" for the poor or those vulnerable to

poverty from falling below a certain status level or

deeper into a tax-payer padded pit that's both legal and my right to choose

when I can't see my way out of a bad situation. At worst Roe v. Wade is just

the latest weapon America is using to oppress the personhood of communities

of color for her own personal profit. The bottom line is Black America has nofaith in America and no hope of ever participating in the American Dream.

Roe v. Wade can be overturned today and Black America, Planned

Parenthood's #1 target and #1 customer, will still struggle with a perpetual

pain and an incurable wound which refuses to be healed. Black America,

which in addition to having the highest abortion rates in the country, also has

the highest STD rates, the highest percentage of unwed mothers and the

highest percentage of unemployed, is like Jeremiah (Jeremiah 15:18), asking

God "wilt thou be altogether unto me as a liar, and as waters that fail?" 7


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"The Negro cannot win if he is willing to sell the future of his children for his personal and immediate comfort and

safety." Martin Luther King, Jr. ("The Living King", Ebony, Vol. 41, No. 3, January 1986, Page 63.)

Black America cares more about "Equality" and

"Justice" than about overturning Roe v. Wade.

Because "nobody cares how much you know, until

they know how much you care," we care more about

being included in the best-known sentence in the English language, ("We holdthese truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are

endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these

are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.") than we do about overturning

Roe v. Wade. Because the Constitution of the United States is the supreme

law of the land, the framework for the organization of our government and the

final arbiter in the relationship of the federal government with the states,

citizens, and all people within the United States, we care more about installing

a definition of personhood that applies to everyone regardless of the means

by which they were procreated, method of reproduction, age, race, sex,

gender, physical well-being, function, or condition of physical or mental

dependency and/or disability or previous condition of servitude than we do

about overturning Roe v. Wade. It's not about overturning Roe v. Wade. It's

about people. It's about helping hurting people. So shouldn't we, as the Body

of Christ, leave the results to God, give Him the glory for the great things He

has done and work together to help hurting people?

Brothers, we really need to talk.

Reference(s):

1. Roe v. Wade, 410 U.S. 113 (1972). Findlaw.com. Retrieved 2007-01-26. It should be noted that Roe herself opposes

Roe. In 1995, Norma L. McCorvey revealed that she became pro-life and is now a vocal opponent to abortion.

2. Sandra Cano, a 22-year-old mother of three who was nine weeks pregnant at the time the lawsuit was filed, describes

herself as pro-life and claims her attorney, Margie Pitts Hames, lied to her in order to have a plaintiff. (White, Gayle. "Roe

v. Wade Role Just a Page in Rocky Life Story").

3. "The Place of Women on the Court", The New York Times, July 12, 2009, Emily Bazelon (http://bit.ly/eRam4I).

4. "Racial Targeting and Population Control", Mark Crutcher, President, Life Dynamics Incorporated. "The numbers make

it clear that the African-American and Hispanic communities have been targeted and logic makes it clear that this did not

happen coincidentally or unintentionally." (http://bit.ly/nFyUrU).

5. "Seven Supreme Court Decision", Conflict of Interest, Walter B. Hoye II (http://bit.ly/kjmo2J).

6. "Report on the Commission of Education". 1959. (http://bit.ly/tMtKQ5), Heinemann, Ronald L. (1962). Harry Byrd of

Virginia, p. 350. University of Virginia Press, Charlottesville, Virginia.

7. Jeremiah 15:18 (KJV): "Why is my pain perpetual, and my wound incurable, which refuses to be healed? Will you be

altogether unto me as a deceitful brook, and as waters that fail?"

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Personhood: Beyond Roe and Doe