The following statement appeared as a full-page advertisement in the New York Times during the Democratic Convention this past July. Over the next months and years, the American people will confront again the question that Lincoln posed at Gettysburg: whether a nation conceived in liberty . . . . Continue Reading »
Surely, one may devoutly hope, Justice Scalia exaggerates. In his dissent from Planned Parenthood v. Casey (joined by Rehnquist, Thomas, and White), he develops the analogy between this case and the infamous Dred Scott decision of 1857. What happened then is, in ways . . . . Continue Reading »
Roger Rosenblatt wants you to know that he has solved the abortion problem. Really. He’s written a whole book about it called Life Itself. Of course, the middle third of the book is just a summary of other people’s research on the history of abortion from the beginning of time, and . . . . Continue Reading »
Roe v. Wade is clearly in for substantial pruning—possibly even an outright overruling—in the near future. Thus the ball, so to speak, will be in the pro-life court. As James Davison Hunter’s article in this issue reminds us, Americans do not accept the positions of either the . . . . Continue Reading »
At the foundation of any democratic society is the principle that the laws that order our lives together are legitimate only so long as they enjoy popular consent. This is precisely why the series of Supreme Court decisions allowing and protecting a woman’s access to an abortion on demand are so . . . . Continue Reading »
Christian groups called “Adventist” trace their roots to 1844, the year that some had fixed for the advent, or Second Coming, of Christ. Although now more cautious about setting definite dates, Adventists still live in expectation of an imminent return, and it perhaps follows that they do not . . . . Continue Reading »
Koop: The Memoirs of America’s Family Doctor by C. Everett Koop Random House, 342 pages, $22.50 What baleful things may befall a rugged, plain-spoken, life-affirming man when he ventures into that great bourne called The Beltway—that is the (probably unintended) theme of the autobiography . . . . Continue Reading »
Rights Talk: The Impoverishment of Political Discourseby Mary Ann GlendonFree Press, 288 pages, $22.95 One of the dubious achievements of American legal philosophers and academicians concerned with “rights” is to have emptied jurisprudence of the element of prudence. Constitutional . . . . Continue Reading »
Iwas a teenager and young adult in the late 1960s and early 1970s, before Roe v. Wade made legal abortions widely available in the United States. But if the occasion had arisen, and if it could have been managed safely, I would have aborted an illegitimate baby without a second thought. My . . . . Continue Reading »
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