Our Supreme Court's Dobbs decision returned abortion legislation back to the states, where it always should have been, as per our 10th Amendment.  Now some of our federal officials want to curtail late-term abortions via federal legislation.  This is a mistake and subverts Dobbs.

And yet, we know in our hearts that aborting a late-term baby is wrong.  So what to do?

The solution is to clarify when a person is a U.S. citizen.

All of us born in this country are U.S. citizens.  And we are afforded our constitutional rights — primarily, the rights to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.  Notice that the #1 right is the Right to Life.  Our lives in this country as citizens are protected by our constitutional rights.

There comes a certain point when we are no longer U.S. citizens, and those rights expire.  Typically, that would end after we're dead, although sometimes our rights expire later, if our government wants to dig up our bones and schlep them over elsewhere.

But so, if we have a defined period of being a U.S. citizen, and an endpoint of being citizens, then there must be a beginning point of being a citizen of our country.  When is that?

We are a citizen when we are born.  How about if we are born a day early, through C-section?  How about if we are born three months early through C-section?  If a baby is viable at 24 or 22 weeks, isn't he only a scalpel slice away from being "born"?  Is he not a thriving baby, and a U.S. citizen, afforded all his constitutional rights?

A child at 23 weeks into a pregnancy.
Photo by Woodleywonderworks from an exhibit at the Museum of Science and Industry in Chicago, CC BY 2.0 license.

I propose that our federal government establish a time when a viable baby is a U.S. citizen, afforded her constitutional rights, primarily the right to life.

(My own state of California is trying to extend abortion up until the moment of [natural] birth.  I cannot understand the evil of this.  Can someone explain why my governor would want to kill a baby?)

Christopher Helbling is a retired public school teacher in California.