Billy Long: It's time to abort Roe V Wade

(From Seventh District Congressman Billy Long)

I co-hosted the radio show 'Morning Line with Bonnie and Billy' on AM560 KWTO from 1999 to 2006 in Springfield, Missouri. Today it's known as 'Wake Up Springfield,' and I was listening to it Wednesday, December 1st, which was the day Roe v Wade was going to be argued before the Supreme Court. 

Wake Up Springfield producer Cass Bowen was relating the fact that she had been adopted as her 13-year-old mother had given her up for adoption. Cass said her mother had every reason in the world to abort her, but she chose life instead. 

Later at lunch that same day an abortion survivor recognized me from my staunch pro-life work for the innocent unborn and came over to my table to introduce herself. She had survived an abortion that was meant to end her life in 1977 when her mother was forced into having an abortion. She was in town with the 'Abortion Survivors Network.' 

These two examples from December 1st should serve as a reminder to all of us that real human lives are being snuffed out with each barbaric abortion. Abortion remains the number one killer of Americans and nothing else is even close.

In 1973, I was a senior in high school when Roe v Wade was the discussion at every dinner table across America as that was the year the Supreme Court erroneously said there is a constitutional right to an abortion. 

Since then, Roe vs. Wade has tragically been the law of the land. Several states have attempted to place restrictions on abortion, but many of these have been struck down by the courts. That may soon change, thanks to the case before the Supreme Court, one that may pave the way for ending Roe vs. Wade.

Dobbs vs. Jackson Women’s Health Organization centers around a 2018 law passed in the State of Mississippi. The law in question bans abortion after 15 weeks of gestation. 

Immediately, the only abortion provider in the state sued. This was not unexpected, nor was it unexpected when the lower courts prohibited the law from going into effect. These courts are bound by Supreme Court precedent, a terrible precedent that says there is a constitutional right to an abortion. Only the Supreme Court can overturn that precedent, and that is exactly what is being asked of the Court in this case.

The Supreme Court has a few options for handling this case. The first being agreement with the lower courts and prohibiting the law from going into effect. They can also allow the law to go into effect, without overturning Roe, or they can overturn Roe altogether. 

If they chose one of the latter two options, this would have immense impacts on abortion in this country. Several states currently have abortion bans that are being held up in the courts, and even if the Supreme Court simply allows the ban, without overturning Roe, these other states will have a greater chance of success for their own bans. 

One of these states is Missouri. In 2019, Missouri passed an eight-week ban on abortion, which would also ban all abortions should Roe be overturned. What the Supreme Court does in Dobbs will set a new legal precedent, one that could drastically reduce the number of abortions performed in the United States.

This case was heard Wednesday, December 1st and a final decision will likely come in June or July of next year. While we await the justices’ decision, we hope and pray that they will make the right decision in this case.

President Trump appointed 3 new conservative justices to the Court, and this will hopefully pay off for the thousands of unborn babies that will live as a result of the Court’s action. I didn’t understand how the Supreme Court thought ending human life in the womb was perfectly fine in 1973, and I don’t understand it now. There is no constitutional right to kill an innocent human being. PERIOD.