Steven L. Sloca
May 14, 2022Yahoo News

If the Supreme Court finalizes the Samuel Alito draft on abortion which was leaked last week, it may impact the First Amendment’s prohibition on the establishment of religion; and it would totally shock the Founding Fathers by enshrining a Popish dogma into American law. This arises from the fact that when and under what circumstances abortion should be allowed is entirely a question of religious faith.

For example, the Catholic Church for 1,860 years held that it was not the killing of a human being to abort a fetus before “quickening,” which was decreed by Pope Gregory XIV in 1591 to be the 166th day after conception (somewhere in the 6th month). There was a very good reason for this doctrine. Catholic theologians such as St. Thomas Aquinas, St. Jerome and others knew that many pregnancies ended with natural abortions, commonly known as miscarriages, usually in the first four months.

Indeed, it has been estimated that more than 25% of confirmed pregnancies end in natural abortions; and the number of embryos not attaching to the uterus and being lost are probably a hundred times more frequent. It was believed that God determined whether a woman would miscarry (as well as when she became pregnant in the first place); and it would have made God into a mass murderer if it were believed that God killed 25% of all babies. Therefore, Catholic doctrine for the first
1,860 years was that God did not give a fetus a soul — and thus render it human — until that 166th day.

When the Protestant churches broke away from the Roman Church in the Reformation, they took with them this same doctrine that “human” life begins at quickening. In Protestant England before the American Revolution, abortion before quickening was not a crime. The American colonies adopted English law; and at the time of the adoption of our Constitution, abortion before quickening was legal in all the states. Justice Alito is just dead wrong on his history and legal analysis.

Other religions have different beliefs as to when a fetus becomes human. Jews believe that souls attach at birth. Muslims believe it happens in about the fourth month, as they say the fetal brain must reach a level of complexity so the soul has something to attach to. Buddhists believe it could happen anytime during pregnancy; but abortion is not an issue for them because an aborted soul simply finds a new and better body. So, the issue of when a fetus becomes a human being has different answers for followers of different religions.

The controversy exists because in 1869, Pope Pius IX declared that God gave souls to fertilized eggs, and therefore any woman who had an abortion at any time must be excommunicated. Nowhere does he explain why he was suddenly changing 1,860 years of doctrine; and the Church, to this day, has no explanation for the change or how it would affect natural abortions.

Mostly Protestant America was not bound by the Pope’s decree; and, indeed, “papism” — or the adherence to the dictates of the Pope — was considered an evil thing in many 19th century Protestant churches. But over the course of the next 100 years, newly formed “evangelical” Protestant churches
adopted Pope Pius’s decree — usually without any knowledge of its background or history. The conflict began — really only in the 20th century — when adherents of the “fertilized egg has a soul” doctrine tried to enforce their dogma on everyone else.

The Court in Roe v. Wade attempted to eliminate the religious debate, and to rest the legality of abortion on an entirely secular standard. “Viability outside of the womb” is a scientifically measurable event (even though it is somewhat blurred by advancing medical technology) which does not require a governmental agency or court to choose one religious belief over another. Instead, every woman, with her family and spiritual advisers, could make the decision in accordance with her own personal religious beliefs.

The Alito draft decision would eliminate 50 years of religious freedom and allow states to impose religious beliefs on non-believers. What is allowed for abortion will likely be followed by other religious beliefs that eager politicians want to enshrine into law. What will result is a government run by religious doctrines — the very thing our Founding Fathers sought to prevent.

Steven L. Sloca lives in Upper Makefield.

This article originally appeared on Bucks County Courier Times: Guest Opinion: Alito draft decision incompatible with religious freedom

https://www.yahoo.com/news/guest-opinion-alito-draft-decision-091807932.html