Why justifying abortion is like justifying slavery
‘But whether it’s slavery or abortion, the philosophy is the same: the sinister
and un-american belief that NOT ALL humans are persons’
Mon Nov 23, 2020 - 11:29 am EST
Seth Gruber
November 23, 2020 (
LifeSiteNews) – He was personally opposed to slavery. But supported your right to buy slaves. This was the position of Illinois Senator Stephen Douglas who lost his bid for President to Abraham Lincoln in 1860. Douglas believed it was the “right” of each state to determine whether they would enslave blacks or not.
How did Douglas reach this evil position? Well, Douglas had assumed the premises of positive law, which suggests that rights come from government. If Southern states did not count slaves as bearers of rights, that was the end of it. But assumed premises–especially when undetected–can destroy a nation.
Today, I’m going to argue that assumed premises are killing us as a Republic.
Our nation–with little fanfare and almost without notice–has assumed a premise completely at odds with the American founding: namely, that fundamental rights are a creation of the state. As Hadley Arkes explains, “
many Americans, and especially members of the political class, have come to talk themselves out of the premises of the American Founders and Lincoln… ” Like Douglas, many Americans today have unconsciously absorbed premises at odds with the philosophy of this republic.
And what is that philosophy? Well, it’s the philosophy that makes America truly exceptional! Our Founders contrasted natural rights with merely legal (positive) ones. Natural rights are those rights you possess simply because you are human. These basic rights flow from your humanity and you have them from the moment you begin to exist. For example, you have a natural right not to be harmed without justification (unless you’re unborn), as well as a natural right not to be convicted of a crime without a fair trial. Government doesn’t create these basic rights. Rather, government’s job is to recognize and protect them.
Conversely, legal (positive) rights are those you gain only through age or achievement, such as the right to drive or vote. For example, I do not have a right to vote in the next British election because I’m not a citizen of that fine nation. But surely I do have a right not to be gunned down in the street next time I visit London.
Our founders fled a country built on the premises of positive rights in order to craft a new nation built upon natural rights and the recognition of their source (God). This is why America is exceptional and why even today, 244 years after the founding of this country, people from all over the world want in. . . .
