President Trump is facing another pro-life opportunity with the death of pro-abortion U.S. Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg. If the President appoints a pro-life successor to Ginsburg, pro-lifers in America believe that the odds that Roe vs. Wade, the nationwide right to abortion, will be repealed.
SPUC’s Daniel Frampton said: “President Trump now has the chance to further solidify the claim that he is America’s most pro-life president ever by nominating a reliably pro-life justice to the Supreme Court, the highest court in the land. However, such an appointment will not necessarily guarantee the repeal of the infamous Roe v. Wade decision in 1973.”
The death of Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, 87, last Friday, has raised the prospect of the appointment of a pro-life justice before the 2020 election in early November.
If President Trump makes an appointment to the Supreme Court before November, or if he wins the election, the selection and confirmation of a steadfast pro-life justice might be a significant step towards the repeal of Roe vs. Wade, which essentially legalised abortion throughout the USA in 1973.
Roe vs. Wade
If Roe vs. Wade is repealed, pro-life states would be able to prohibit abortion.
As it currently stands, while Roe vs. Wade legalised abortion, states still have a right to ban abortion during the second and third trimesters.
The Supreme Court
The Supreme Court is made up of nine justices. If the U.S. Senate confirms a pro-life appointment, six of out nine justices could potentially have the final word on abortion in the USA, and, it is hoped, deliver pro-life judgements.
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell has indicated that he will push to confirm President Trump’s Supreme Court nominee before the election.
A potential pro-life nominee
President Trump has said he will appoint a female justice to fill the position vacated by Justice Ginsburg. A strong frontrunner for the vacancy is Judge Amy Coney Barrett, 48, a Catholic mother of seven who is reported to be pro-life.
Barrett has already faced anti-life bias as a Catholic, having stated in 2013 that “life begins at conception”. During her confirmation to the position of judge on the 7th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in 2017, Democrats attempted to use her pro-life faith to thwart her appointment.
Daniel Frampton said: “Judge Barrett would satisfy President Trump’s pro-life base, which he has represented keenly since he first ran to be President, declaring that he would seek to repeal Roe vs. Wade. Moreover, Judge Barrett is understood to have a conservative reading of the U.S. Constitution, which may further commend her to a Republican Senate.”
The nominee is expected to be announced this week.