Life, Liberty, and Law: The Lincoln Proposal and correcting Roe’s first and foundational error
Since 1973, more than 60 million American children have been killed by the violence of abortion. The horror of approximately 2,000 daily killings stems from the United States Supreme Court’s constitutional errors in Roe v. Wade. The Court made two fundamental errors in Roe: first, in its refusal to read the Fourteenth Amendment’s guarantees of equal protection and due process to extend to preborn persons; and second, in its erroneous conclusion that “the right to privacy extends to abortion.”
Fortunately, as scholars ranging from Professor Robert P. George to Professor Mark Tushnet have observed, the judiciary is not the sole interpreter of the Constitution. Rather, the legislature and executive share in this responsibility. Since Planned Parenthood v. Casey, the judicial and legislative branches, as well as the states, have engaged in a kind of trench warfare over the logic and scope of Roe’s secondary error. The Lincoln Proposal, co-authored by Catherine Glenn Foster, Dr. Chad Pecknold, and Josh Craddock, offers a bold vision to repair our constitutional order by turning the executive’s attention to the task of correcting Roe’s first and foundational error.
We speak with Dr. Chad Pecknold and Josh Craddock on their “Lincoln Proposal” and how— regardless of whatever lingering indifference exists from our legislative or judiciary classes—future pro-life presidents should act to protect pre-born persons.