How Alito gets the facts wrong about abortion history.
Caricature of Associate Justice Samuel Alito by DonkeyHotey / Flickr / Creative Commons.
By Lamar W. Hankins | The Rag Blog | May 18, 2022
The Ninth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, part of the original Bill of Rights, reads:
The enumeration in the Constitution, of certain rights, shall not be construed to deny or disparage others retained by the people.
As the Supreme Court continues to wrestle with the question “Does the Constitution protect abortion rights?” we should look carefully at how the Court approaches deciding what rights and liberties exist or should exist under the Constitution, especially with regard to the unenumerated rights provided by the Ninth Amendment.
In an attempt to graft originalist theory onto every issue that comes before the Court, especially the abortion question, Justice Alito’s draft opinion for a majority of the Supreme Court overturning Roe v. Wade makes two historical mistakes: First, it chooses to look only at a narrow band of “history and tradition” as developed in the laws of the various states, rather than a history of human beings through the ages, which reflects much broader concerns and practices; second, it distorts and falsifies the history of this country pertaining to abortion to suit the majority’s preferred political and religious views.
