CV NEWS FEED // Regardless of what the Supreme Court decides in two upcoming abortion cases, the stage for the issue leading up to the November election has been set by the recent Alabama Supreme Court decision, says pro life expert Russell Shaw.
In an op ed published by Angelus News on Monday, former information director of the United States Catholic Conference of Bishops (USCCB) Shaw wrote: “Come right down to it, the argument is simple to the point of being self-evident: a human embryo is either a human person or well along in the process of becoming one.”
In any case, he continued, even though the recent Alabama Supreme Court Decision “was not directly about abortion,” it has “undoubtedly set the stage” for the two upcoming Supreme Court cases in Texas and Idaho that are.
He continued:
No matter what the Supreme Court does, its decisions will further inflame debate over abortion as an issue in November’s presidential and congressional elections. President Biden and Vice President Harris say they will make abortion central to their reelection campaigns.
And in November a dozen or more states will consider ballot measures to add a right to abortion to their state constitutions.
The Texas Food and Drug Administration v. Alliance for Hippocratic Medicine case will determine whether the court will uphold recent restrictions placed on the chemical abortion drug mifepristone.
The Idaho Moyle v. United States case will determine whether the federal Emergency Medical Treatment and Labor Act requires emergency rooms in the state to perform abortions.
Idaho has argued that federal law cannot override its state statutes to require its medical professionals to perform abortions, “any more than it can use it to override state law on organ transplants or marijuana use.”
Nonetheless, Shaw wrote, each case will now be viewed from the “central” point of “the ongoing national debate”—and that is, “whether the fetus enjoys the legal rights of personhood, including the right to life.”
