This article originally appeared on WND.com
Guest by post by Bob Unruh
‘Constitutional provision tilts the scales of the law in favor of protecting the unborn’
A ruling from the Supreme Court in the state of Alabama has released a stunning verdict: That embryos are “children” under state law and protected by the same laws that apply who children already born.
The decision essentially determined that unborn children are a person. The question posed was whether a state law protecting children excluded those unborn.
“Under existing black-letter law, the answer to that question is no: the Wrongful Death of a Minor Act applies to all unborn children, regardless of their location,.” the court said. “[T]he relevant statutory text is clear: the Wrongful Death of a Minor Act applies on its face to all unborn children, without limitation.”
The decision reversed a lower court ruling that tossed a case brought by three couples over the destruction of their embryos at a clinic.
“Thee Wrongful Death of a Minor Act applies to all unborn children, regardless of their location,” the court said.
A Fox report explained, “The couples who filed the lawsuit claim a wandering patient gained access to the cryogenic storage area, removed embryos from the freezer, and dropped the embryos on the floor, destroying them.”
The ruling sends the case back down to the Mobile Circuit Court for further proceedings. The couples are seeking damages.
The precedent already is being used.
“Liberty Counsel filed a supplemental authority today with the Florida Supreme Court regarding the proposed abortion amendment to Florida’s constitution. Currently, the Florida Constitution protects the rights of a ‘natural person.’ During the oral argument on February 7, Florida Chief Justice Carlos Muñiz asked attorneys on both sides of the abortion issue if the ballot summary should apprise voters of how the proposed abortion amendment could impact the constitution if its definition of ‘natural person’ also included the unborn,” the legal team explained.
“Liberty Counsel is using Alabama’s ruling to argue that Florida’s Constitution, like Alabama’s, affirms ‘that an unborn child qualifies as a human life, a human being, and a person.’ In response to Chief Justice Muñiz’s question, Florida’s deceptive amendment proposal as written misleads voters by not explaining how it will take away a protected right to life for the unborn,” the legal team said.
The ruling determined, “All parties to these cases, like all members of this Court, agree that an unborn child is a genetically unique human being whose life begins at fertilization and ends at death. The parties further agree that an unborn child usually qualifies as a ‘human life,’ ‘human being,’ or ‘person,’ as those words are used in ordinary conversation and in the text of Alabama’s wrongful-death statutes. That is true, as everyone acknowledges, throughout all stages of an unborn child’s development, regardless of viability.”
It stated, “The ordinary meaning of ‘child’ includes children who have not yet been born.”
Chief Justice Tom Parker, who wrote a special concurrence, said, “A good judge follows the Constitution instead of policy, except when the Constitution itself commands the judge to follow a certain policy. In these cases, that means upholding the sanctity of unborn life, including unborn life that exists outside the womb. Our state Constitution contains the following declaration of public policy: ‘This state acknowledges, declares, and affirms that it is the public policy of this state to recognize and support the sanctity of unborn life and the rights of unborn children, including the right to life.’”
Parker said, “The People of Alabama have declared the public policy of this State to be that unborn human life is sacred. We believe that each human being, from the moment of conception, is made in the image of God. Putting this all together, [the law] does much more than simply declare a moral value that the People of Alabama like. Instead, this constitutional provision tilts the scales of the law in favor of protecting unborn life.”
Mat Staver,chief of Liberty Counsel, which has fought on behalf of life issues for decades, said, “Every unborn life is a human being. Every human life begins as an embryo, and now the Alabama Supreme Court has upheld the decision of its citizenry that every unborn life should be protected, no matter their stage or location. This important ruling has far-reaching implications. Liberty Counsel is using this precedent to argue that Florida’s proposed deceptive and misleading abortion amendment violates Florida’s own laws that routinely recognize that an ‘unborn child’ has the legally protected rights of a person. Unborn life must be protected at every stage.”
Having the unborn declared to hold personhood long has been a goal of the pro-life movement, because if those unborn are “persons” under the law, all of the legal protections provided in the Constitution and the law apply to them, too.
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