When Is A New Life Recognized And Protected By The U.S. Constitution?

If you believe in life after death, you believe that each person consists of a mortal body and an immortal spirit.

The body is an earthly creation.  The spirit is a creation of God.  Christians believe that each spirit is given one body and one physical life.
We know when and how the physical body is created.  We don't know when the spirit is created by God, however: if Christians believe that the body does not exist without the spirit then the body and the spirit are created at the same time.  Thus the spirit is born at the moment of physical conception.

When the body dies, the spirit's afterlife begins.  Some bodies survive for more than 100 years.  Some bodies die as infants.  Some bodies die during the physical birth.  Some bodies die before the physical birth.  In each case the body's spirit returns to God and is never reborn in the physical world.

Every birth aborted after conception ends the one and only physical life of the spirit created with the body at conception, including the spirits of the bodies aborted by the morning after pill.

The U.S. Constitution and all the federal, state and local laws of the United States of America are secular laws.  Whether a god or gods exist, whether this god or gods created the universe and everything in it, including certain laws for mankind to obey, are matters of individual faith, not the Constitution and the laws of these United States of America except that the Constitution protects each citizen's right to a religious belief and the practice of that religion as long as it does not limit the Constitutional rights of others.

If you believe that your god(s) create an immortal spirit at the conception of each being, then you must also believe that abortion in any form and for any reason interferes with an act of god, especially if you believe that everything happens according to god's design.  If you believe that conception, whether or not it is timely, normal or voluntary, is determined by your god(s), then you might also believe that you have no right to abort that conception.

No matter how true that is for the believer, the believer has no right to impose his belief on anyone but himself.  However, abortion becomes a matter of secular law if the human being, protected by the U.S. Constitution regardless of religion, exists from the moment of conception.  Even secular law must establish when a human being is protected by the U.S. Constitution as an individual.

When the citizens of Mississippi were asked whether a person exists from the time of conception, many of us thought that this question was not a matter for secular law but it is.  Regardless of one's religious beliefs, the U.S. Constitution must define when a human being gains all the rights and protections of the U.S. Constitution relative to the time of conception.  Is it at the same time?  Is it after two trimesters?  Or, is it only after birth?

When does constitutionally protected life begin and is it adequately protected by our laws?

Law Enforcement Could Have Prevented Dr. Tiller's Murder

Scott Roeder, an extreme anti-abortion activist, has been charged with murdering Dr. Tiller, who performed abortions, some late-term, in Wichita, KS. I don't believe in abortion unless it is a medical necessity. Dr. Tiller performed abortions that were legal in Kansas. The legality of his abortions was upheld in court.

The Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances Act, 1994, forbids the use of force, threat of force or physical obstruction to prevent someone from providing or receiving reproductive health services. Violation of the Act is a federal crime. In 1994, the Dept of Justice prosecuted 17 violations of FACE. In the years 1994 through 1998, the DOJ prosecuted about 50 violations. While GW Bush was president, the DOJ prosecuted an average of 2 violations per year. The number of DOJ prosecutions would be expected to decrease because the number of FACE complaints per year decreased. However, the ratio of prosecutions to complaints during the Bush administration was only one-third as much as throughout the Clinton administration.

Violations have not decreased for all clinics as much as they have for some because of differences in the enforcement of the law. Law enforcement in Wichita, KS where Dr. Tiller had his clinic was poor to none. After one Wichita city attorney failed to act on one of Dr. Tiller’s complaints, the attorney explained that he would rather be sued by Dr. Tiller than the anti-abortionists.

Many complaints about Scott Roeder were filed with the FBI over a period of years yet Roeder was never prosecuted. The FBI received two complaints from a Kansas City clinic about Scott Roeder one week before the murder and the day before the murder. In the second incident a clinic employee confronted Roeder while Roeder was trying to super glue the clinic’s access doors. Roeder was also videotaped by the clinics security system but the FBI did nothing.

While local law enforcement and the FBI did nothing, Cheryl Sullenger, an advisor to Operation Rescue, an anti-abortion group in Wichita, provided information to Scott Roeder regarding the time and place of various court hearings in which Dr. Tiller was involved. Cheryl Sullenger served two years in jail for conspiracy to bomb a California abortion clinic. Sullenger claims that she was only providing answers to Roeder’s questions and was not otherwise involved. It appears to me that Cheryl Sullenger, if not Operation Rescue also, conspired to murder Dr. Tiller.

Scott Roeder was able to murder Dr. Tiller because the DOJ, the FBI and local law enforcement in Kansas repeatedly and consistently failed to act. I expect Scott Roeder to be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law. However, I question whether Cheryl Sullenger and Operation Rescue will be investigated to determine if either or both conspired with Scott Roeder. I also question whether the DOJ, FBI and Wichita law enforcement will investigate their neglect that enabled this crime to be committed.