Of course there’s no mention of abortion in the Constitution

Associate Justice Samuel Alito states in his opinion draft overturning Roe v. Wade that “the Constitution makes no mention of abortion,” which he factors into his conclusion that Roe must be overruled. But why would anyone expect the Framers of the Constitution — white male property owners, with property including enslaved people — to ever have included women’s reproductive rights anywhere in their original intent?

The statement by Justice Alito is absurd. He claims — quoting one other Supreme Court ruling — that the principle underlying Roe v. Wade does not apply because “any such right must be ‘deeply rooted in this Nation’s history and tradition’ and ‘implicit in the concept of ordered liberty.’ ”

Justice Alito, of what deep rooted history are you speaking? The near century before the abolishment of slavery (at least in law)? The history prior to women’s right to vote with the ratification of the 19th Amendment in 1920?

In a pivotal paragraph in Roe v. Wade articulating the principal of privacy from government intrusion upon which the justices (most appointed by Republican presidents) affirmed a woman’s fundamental right to abortion, I counted reference to 14 Supreme Court writings and opinions. I’m not an attorney, but I can read, and it reads like precedence to me — precedence Justice Alito ignored in fabricating his spurious reasoning to force his apparent singular long-held moral belief (along with his selective memory) upon others.

At any rate, the tone of Justice Alito’s draft opinion doesn’t comfortably fit with the Constitution’s purpose articulated in its preamble to “promote the general Welfare, and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity.”

— Frederic H. Decker, Bowie