By DONALD DeMARCO
This dialogue did take place, but solely in the imagination of the author. Yet, I think, it never wanders from reality.
Interviewer: Thank you for agreeing to share your thoughts with me. I am a reporter and would like to understand better what you are doing. Oh, excuse me, take this bottle of water. You must be hoarse from all that shouting.
Protester: I am always eager to help others to see the merits of our cause. We are fighting against, bigotry, sexism, and an antiquated form of conservatism.
Interviewer: My question to you, and you must be patient with me, is this: What are you really protesting?
Protester: You really are testing my patience! We are protesting the apparent overturning of Roe v. Wade. I thought everybody knew that. What planet have you been living on?
Interviewer: It seems to me, however, that what you are really protesting against is an apparently correct interpretation of the Constitution.
Protester: You mean an incorrect interpretation of the Constitution.
Interviewer: It was evident to many back in 1973 that the Roe v. Wade ruling was incorrect. Justice Byron White stated that it was “an exercise in raw judicial power.” Many critics of the decision agreed with him and felt that it was only a matter of time before the ruling would be overturned. The Constitution has no provision for dealing with abortion whatsoever. And why would it? Why would the Founding Fathers, who were all about liberty and justice for all and that all men are created equal, put in the Constitution a clause that would deny life, liberty, and justice to all American citizens in the first nine months of their existence?
Protester: That’s the problem, “all men”!
Interviewer: In this case, the word is used generically to include everyone. If you saw a sign that read, “Danger, man-eating shark,” would you assume that there would be no danger to women?
Protester: You say, “all.” But what about blacks and women?
Interviewer: There have been several bad Supreme Court decisions in the past, especially Dred Scott. But these bad decisions were overturned and to the benefit of blacks and women. So, overturning a Supreme Court decision is not necessarily bad. It is usually good.
Protester: We are protesting in the name of the late, great Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg who was a champion of women’s rights.
Interviewer: Did you know that she strongly opposed violence and believed that the Constitution did not provide a right to abortion? Rather, she held that abortion is a matter for states to decide and on a democratic basis. You see, your comrades are really protesting against Justice Ginsburg. Maybe you are also opposing the democratic process. It seems to me that you are protesting a lot of things that are indispensable for holding American society together.
Protester: Nonetheless, a woman has a right to have an abortion if she so chooses.
Interviewer: But that “right,” as Justice Alito has clearly stated, is not to be found in the United States Constitution. Can you find it? Good luck. You are protesting against the Constitution, a document established by intelligent and conscientious men, which is the very backbone of our country’s system of laws. Take away the backbone and our country falls apart. Without law and order, violence will reign unchecked.
Protester: I don’t agree with anything you say. A woman has a right to control her own body and the unborn is part of her body.
Interviewer: I beg to differ. It has been known from empirical investigation that the unborn is not part of its mother’s body. If it were, it would always be part of her body. Do you regard yourself at your age as still part of your mother’s body?
Protester: Don’t be silly.
Interviewer: I am not being silly. The unborn child resides in the mother’s body for nine months. He or she has his or her own blood type and 50 percent of the time, has a different sex than the mother. He or she has his or her own DNA and his or her own destiny.
I reside in my house. I am not part of my house even though I spend considerable time in it and breathe in its life-sustaining air. I can leave and re-enter as I please without my identity undergoing a change. I am not part of my house but merely reside in it. During surgery a patient’s small intestine may be exteriorized during the operation and then returned to its proper place. But it is always part of the women’s body. It belongs there, indefinitely, unlike the unborn child. The surgeon, due to carelessness, may leave a sponge inside her, but that sponge is never regarded as part of her body.
Protester: You talk a lot, but I am still going to protest that our freedom of choice is at stake.
Interviewer: You say “freedom of choice.” Do you protesters have any regard for the freedom of choice for Supreme Court justices with whom you disagree to go on living and not be harassed by angry protesters? Does voting to overturn Roe v. Wade warrant capital punishment: There has been an attempt to assassinate Justice Kavanaugh. Do you agree with that?
Protester: We are angry and people who stand in the way of a woman’s right to abort deserve what they get.
Interviewer: No one is standing in the way of your so-called “right” to abortion. If Roe v. Wade is overturned, each state will regulate abortion in accordance with a democratic process. A number of corporations have agreed to finance travel costs for any woman who may want an out-of-state abortion. Don’t you see, my friend, that your protest has nothing to do with abortion? It is an attempt to destroy the very law and order that serve to protect you and everyone else.
Protester: All right! I have heard enough. You have given me much to think about. Maybe I have been a little rash. But abortion is sacred to us.
Interviewer: It is a great sadness to me that the entrance into existence of a new life, a unique human being, who has a special destiny, can be met with lethal hostility. It is the mark of a truly civilized society that pregnancy should be regarded as a blessing, not a curse, and that new life should be welcomed as a gift to the world, and not destroyed.
Protester: You are an idealist!
Interviewer: No, I am an American. What are you?
(Dr. Donald DeMarco’s latest book is The Road to a Better World, currently posted on Amazon at $8.00.)
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