Supreme Court must address civil rights of unborn children

It’s time for the United States Supreme Court to address the civil rights of unborn children by agreeing to hear Indiana’s appeal regarding its Dignity for the Unborn Act. The Indiana law is not another rehash of previous abortion-related arguments to arrive at the court since 1973. Indeed, Indiana’s law checks multiple boxes as to why the court should have great interest in hearing the appeal: it is novel to the court, it addresses the fundamental issue of civil rights, and it directly challenges an aspect of abortion never considered in the Roe v. Wade framework. 

The Dignity for the Unborn Act, signed into law in 2016 by then-Gov. Mike Pence, prohibits abortions based solely on the baby’s race, national origin, sex, Down syndrome, or potential disability, by defining these as discriminatory practices under Indiana’s civil rights code. It is the first time any state has extended such sweeping protections through recognition of an unborn child’s civil rights. Democratic and Republican members of the Indiana legislature who voted against the law loudly denounced it as “going too far,” a position sadly mirroring the political arguments used for decades to suppress the civil rights of millions of Americans already born.  

{mosads}Shortly after its passage, the law was blocked by an Obama-appointed federal judge with an established track record of blocking Indiana laws opposed by the abortion industry. In 2018, the 7th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals affirmed the permanent injunction, and then denied Indiana’s request for en banc review after a judge’s unexpected recusal prevented the majority vote needed to grant the review. Now Indiana is asking the Supreme Court to weigh in on whether unborn children, fully human and fully alive, are entitled to civil rights protections. 

The Supreme Court must not shirk its responsibilities here. The importance of recognizing human dignity through established civil rights has a long history in our nation. It is not difficult to find in our past the painful failings of human slavery, segregation, employment discrimination, racial profiling and more. Indeed, the national dialogue on the topic of human dignity continues with fervor today as the nation grapples with the civil rights implications of the #MeToo movement, Black Lives Matter, immigration reform, religious liberty and more. Civil rights protections are fundamental to the protection of the helpless, the weak and the oppressed.

From the day the Dignity for the Unborn Act was signed into law, it has terrified abortion supporters because it brings the issue of abortion to a very human level. Are we, as a nation, comfortable with a child being aborted because of the color of his skin? Are we comfortable with a child being aborted because she is a girl? Are we comfortable with a child being aborted because her parents are from Central America? Are we comfortable with a child being aborted because he has Down syndrome? To answer “yes” to any of these questions is to accept that the civil rights protections these children enjoy one second after birth do not exist one second before birth.

U.S. Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O’Connor once famously declared that the 1973 Roe v. Wade decision was “on a collision course with itself.” The collision point is here. The Supreme Court must end its dancing around the peripheries of Roe by pretending the central issue is how far women need to drive to seek abortions, or by alternately weaponizing Roe to attack states’ rights by overriding the will of duly elected legislators working to protect the helpless. The time is now for the court to hear Indiana’s appeal on the Dignity for the Unborn Act and to finally address civil rights protections for unborn children.

Mike Fichter is Indiana Right to Life president and CEO.