Daily Verse | Galatians 5:14
The entire law is summed up in a single command: “Love your neighbor as yourself.”
Friday’s Reading: Ephesians 1-6
Happy Friday, Broadsiders. I’m learning to say “crochet” in 35 other languages because you never know when you might need it.
A short post this morning as we head into the weekend in follow up to the arguments yesterday in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health. In particular, I want to point out that Justice Sonia Sotomayor was not only hostile to Mississippi Attorney General Scott Stewart, who challenged Roe’s standard of viability; she was illogical in her responses.
I mentioned yesterday that Sotomayor questioned the State of Mississippi’s compelling interest in the viability of an unborn baby by asking, “How is your interest anything but a religious view … that’s a religious view … because it assumes that a fetus is life.”
First, no where does our Constitution say that religious motivations or views are not permitted when considering a decision. Second, her accusation that “a religious view … assumes that a fetus is a life” can be applied to her secular view that assumes a fetus is not a life.
That wasn’t the only thing Sotomayor said that got a strong reaction. She compared a fetus feeling pain to a braindead person responding to stimuli.
Mississippi Attorney General Scott Stewart challenged Roe’s standard of viability: that the state does not have an interest in protecting the life of a child until 24 weeks (six months) into pregnancy. Stewart argued that babies’ ability to feel pain before viability should play a role in determining whether the state should protect their lives.
“I don’t see how that really adds anything to the discussion, that a small fringe of doctors believe that pain could be experienced before a cortex is formed,” Sotomayor said while interrupting Stewart repeatedly.
In response to Stewart’s assertion that babies recoil from surgical instruments at as young as 15 weeks, Sotomayor argued that braindead people, who are considered officially dead in most states, can still sometimes respond to stimuli such as being touched on the feet.
“I don’t think that a response by a fetus necessarily proves there’s a sensation of pain or that there’s consciousness,” she said.
Her full comment comparing a live baby in utero and a braindead person in a hospital bed was, “Yet, the literature is filled with episodes of people who are completely and utterly brain dead responding to stimuli. There’s about 40 percent of dead people who, if you touch their feet, the foot will recoil. There are spontaneous acts by dead brain people. So I don’t think that a response to — by a fetus necessarily proves that there’s a sensation of pain or that there’s consciousness.”
Is that your opinion, Judge? This woman is showing how weak the arguments are for Roe.
It isn’t a “small fringe of doctors” who believe a fetus can feel pain. Senator Lindsey Graham tweeted, “It is well-established medical practice to provide anesthesia to the unborn child regarding medical procedures performed before 24 weeks because the nerve endings, which generate pain, are well-developed.”
Sotomayor is uninformed and biased, allowing her political views to color how she views this case. Not very smart for “a wise Latina woman.” In fact, sort of “braindead” if you ask me.
Have a good weekend.