What's the vision of states' rights?
When Southern States tried to secede from our federal union, President Lincoln's vision of preserving our nation saved The United States of America by winning our bloody Civil War. In his famous Gettysburg Address, Lincoln stated his motivation "that the government of the people, by the people, and for the people shall not perish from the earth," so the federal government was preserved and prevailed in our nation's conflicts with the States.
The South's motivation and vision seemed to arise from its vision that each individual State's rights trumped Lincoln's federal vision of federal unity. That "State Rights" vision seems to have arisen again from our recent Supreme Court's decision to overturn the federal law Roe vs Wade and let each State legislate its own abortion laws.
Do most Americans really believe a hodge-podge of States Rights with contradictory abortion laws is better for our union than a federal law that protected every pregnant woman's right to choose? Does renaming every fertilized egg a child make sense to reasonable people? How can reasonable abortion opponents equate all abortions with murder? A Roman Catholic Pope concluded that abortion is murder. What did Jesus teach about abortion?
Tom Driscoll, Poulsbo
This article originally appeared on Kitsap Sun: What's the vision of states' rights?
