Life is precious at all Stages
Justices Scalia, Breyer Differ on Whether Constitution Allows Abortion Rights Washington, DC (LifeNews.com) -- Justices Antonin Scalia and Stephen Breyer differed on the issue of abortion last week. Scalia said his more liberal colleagues are trying to manufacture new constitutional rights that were never intended by the drafters. “The fight is about the Supreme Court inventing new rights nobody ever thought existed,” Justice Antonin Scalia said in an appearance at the University of Arizona College of Law. “Right to abortion?” he asked. “Come on. Nobody thought it violated anything in the Constitution for 200 years. It was criminal.” “They may be bad ideas,” Scalia said. “But don't tell me it’s unconstitutional.” But Justice Stephen Breyer, who shared the stage with Scalia, said his colleague was taking an overly literalistic approach to the 18th century document. He said that the changing nature of society, by necessity, requires more than looking at what Scalia called “originalism.” “You don't look to the details,” Breyer said. “You look to the value.” Scalia specifically warned that those who approach the Constitution as Breyer suggests will not always find courts expanding the definition of individual liberties. “It goes both ways,” he said. “The only thing you can be sure of is the Constitution will mean whatever the American people want it to mean today,” Scalia continued. “And that’s not what a constitution is for,” he said. “The whole purpose of a constitution is to constrain the desires of the current society.” He said there is a remedy for those who want different or broader rights: Go to the Legislature. He said those bodies are free to decide whether abortion should be legal.
Utah Man Who Attacked Pregnant Girl With Her Consent Gets 20 Years in Prison Salt Lake City, UT (LifeNews.com) -- A Utah girl who paid a man to hit her in the stomach in an attempt to cause a miscarriage-abortion was declared by a judge to not be guilty of violating any state law. But, the man who did the deed is headed to prison. The case involves 21-year-old Aaron Harrison whom the unnamed 17-year-old girl asked in May to help her cause an abortion to kill her seven-month-old unborn child. The court documents show the girl's boyfriend had threatened to leave her if she did not get an abortion. Harrison, a friend of the girl, reportedly struck and bit her and she paid him $150 to do so. The unborn baby survived the attack and doctors induced labor so the baby could be born. Harrison was sentenced Tuesday to serve up to 20 years in the Utah State Prison. "Your conduct was unconscionable. You just seem to be a rule unto yourself," said 8th District Judge A. Lynn Payne. "I think your conduct shows remarkable disregard for human life; to meet somebody casually
and agree to take a life for money." Harrison pleaded guilty to attempted murder, a second-degree felony, and faced a possible sentence of one to 15 years in prison. But Payne said the crime fit better with a new Utah abortion statute for attempted killing of an unborn child, a third-degree felony. The judge sentenced him as if he'd pleaded to that crime and ordered him to serve zero to five years in prison for the beating. The new law, which went into effect in May, allows prosecutors to file such a criminal charge if proper procedures are not followed in a legal or illegal abortion. According to court records, Arron Harrison also slapped and bit the pregnant teen before he was paid $150 by the girl. The pair admitted to their actions not long after the incident was reported. Prosecutor Mark Thomas argued that Arron Harrison should be sentenced on the attempted murder charge. He said the crime did not fit the lesser third-degree felony abortion statute because Arron Harrison is not a physician.
Abortion Activist Accepts Six Months' Probation for Assaulting Pro-Life Advocate Washington, DC (LifeNews.com) -- An abortion activist has accepted a sentence of six months probation for her part in an attack on a pro-life man in Arizona who was holding a pro-life sign that apparently upset her and another pro-abortion women. In the September incident, 69-year-old Johnny Wallace was attacked by two women as he held two pro-life signs condemning the racist undertones of abortion and Planned Parenthood. Wallace was alone in front of City Hall on the busiest street in town at the time of the attack. He was known to take up position at the spot most every day to make sure members of the community were reminded of the problems associated with abortion. His two signs read "Abortion kills more black Americans in four days than the Klan killed in 150 years," and "Life begins at conception and ends at Planned Parenthood." Wallace was approached from behind by two women who began by yelling profanities at him. One then attempted to take away and destroy his sign. After Wallace was wrestled to the ground, the other woman joined the attack.
