The Machinery of Death

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The Machinery of Death
by Robert Yoho, Columnist and Senior Editor

November 13, 2003

"Eye on Conservatism"

Columnist Robert Yoho "The Court has recognized that a right of personal privacy does exist in the Constitution. This right of privacy is broad enough to encompass a woman’s decision whether or not to terminate her pregnancy."

Justice Harry Blackmun—1973

"The death penalty experiment has failed. I shall no longer tinker with the machinery of death."

Justice Harry Blackmun—1994

With the passing of former Supreme Court Justice Harry Blackmun in 1999, America witnessed the death of one of its most important players in our nation’s dreadful scourge of abortion.

In 1973, Justice Blackmun, a Nixon appointee to the court, authored the majority decision in "Roe v. Wade," the landmark Supreme Court decision that legalized abortion. And with that one ruling, Blackmun began his obscene tinkering with the machinery of death.

Approximately 30 million abortions later, our country had still not found a single abortion procedure that it was willing to outlaw. President Clinton, who claimed that he wanted to make abortions "safe, legal, and rare," kept only two of those promises. And despite the repeated efforts of a Republican-led Congress, the detestable practice of infanticide—more commonly known as partial birth abortion—continued unabated.

That all ended on Wednesday November 5 when Harry met George. President Bush signed into law a ban on partial birth abortion that ended a grisly practice that more closely resembled something from a Nazi death camp.

No doubt Judge Harry Blackmun is rolling over in his grave today. His 24-year career was characterized by judicial activism, which has been the great hope of liberals everywhere.

Liberalism depends on creative interpretation of the United States Constitution. The Democrats have become the party of "All abortions—all the time!" Whenever they cannot win their battles through the democratic process, they turn to the courts. Harry Blackmun allowed them to find Constitutional language that does not exist, to create laws which Congress never passed, and to deny life—man’s most basic right—to those who are yet unborn.

Abortion is a profitable business that has repeatedly lined the pockets of those in the healthcare industry. And Mr. Blackmun’s part in the whole ugly process should have earned him a quite sizable commission.

If you read the two statements at the beginning of this article, you will see the evolution of a diseased and delusional mind. Judge Blackmun, a man who had no problem with the taking of innocent life, later developed a strange sensitivity to taking the life of the guilty. An appointee to our nation’s highest court, Blackmun came to believe that those who had been given their day in court were more worthy of society’s protection than those who are given a death sentence with no trial.

While militant feminists, Eleanor Smeal and Patricia Ireland, may claim that Blackmun’s decisions have saved and enriched the lives of millions of women, there are studies that show that women who abort their babies will increase their risks of contracting breast cancer. The proponents of abortion also say nothing about the emotional scars that deliberately taking the life of an innocent unborn child may cause these women in later life.

Abortion is a knife that has shredded the fabric of our society. It has coarsened our culture. It has lessened our respect for human life.

One can only wish that the entire practice of abortion could be as easily laid to rest as the body of the former Supreme Court justice.

Despite the fact that Justice Blackmun was a big cog in the machinery of death, I did not rejoice in his death. Nor should we have eulogized his worthless existence. The world is not a better place for his life. Furthermore, over thirty million individuals did not see life because of him.

In 1994, Justice Blackmun said that he never again wanted to tinker with the machinery of death. One can wish that he never started. ***

Photo of Robert Yoho courtesy of staff files