Dear Friend of Life,
One of the common excuses I hear for not saving babies is, “But the courts will never approve it.”
This is not a valid reason for failing to act on Protection at Conception, and let me show you why.
First, legislators need to do their jobs and protect life as they pledged to do during their campaigns. The legislature is a separate and distinct branch from the courts in our constitutional republic.
When legislators use the courts as an excuse to not save babies, they are essentially saying, “Since the courts aren’t doing their jobs of ruling for life, I don’t want to pass bills to protect life.”
Think of your own place of work. Just because somebody else is not doing their job, you do not have a valid excuse to slack off on your own work.
The second reason this “courts will never approve it” excuse is foolish is it claims a knowledge of the future.
You see, a law such as Protection at Conception would generally take from 2-5 years for any litigation to be heard in district courts, appeals courts, and a supreme court at the state or federal level.
Why is that important?
Every year, there is turnover on the courts. Judges retire, resign to take other jobs, or die.
This means they need to be replaced on the bench with new judges.
As an example, President Trump has already nominated two justices for the U.S. Supreme Court in his term as President, with one of them already confirmed and the second pending.
In addition, Trump has seen 23 of his nominations for federal appeals courts approved by the U.S. Senate, with dozens more in the works. The President has also nominated many judges for federal district court seats through the United States.
This same process plays out in the Indiana state court system. Every year, judges leave the bench and need to be replaced.
It takes years for laws to be challenged in the legal system before they make it to the supreme courts at the state or federal level, so there is no way to know the outcome ahead of time. One of the main reasons for this is the constantly changing personnel on these courts.
If Protection at Conception were passed by the Indiana legislature in 2019 during their next session, any litigation against it would be handled in the courts from over a period of years beginning next summer.
So people saying they know how an appeals court or a supreme court would rule on Protection at Conception are claiming they know with certainty who will be on those courts in 2020, 2021, or 2022.
It is not possible to know the makeup of these courts years in advance. President Trump may get one or two additional nominations to the U.S. Supreme Court in the coming years, along with more appeals and district court nominations. The Indiana courts will also have turnover of judges.
These skeptics of Protection at Conception are also claiming they know, with certainty, how those judges will rule on a future case, and this is an equally shaky exercise.
The bottom line is, Indiana state legislators need to do their jobs and pass Rep. Curt Nisly’s Protection at Conception Bill. We’ll worry about the judges after the lawmakers get their work done.
And I’ll be here reminding our elected officials of the most important job they have to do in the upcoming legislative session—protecting pre-born humans at the moment of conception.
For LIFE,
Amy Schlichter
Executive Director
Hoosiers for Life
P.S. Adversaries of Protection at Conception often tell me they can’t save babies because “the courts won’t approve it.” This is a foolish argument because no one knows who will be on what bench when Protection at Conception makes its way through the court system. Furthermore, legislators are not exempt from doing their jobs of protecting innocent pre-born babies just because they predict someone else will fail to do their own job.
I hope you’ll chip in $5 or $10 to help me hold legislators accountable to their pro-life promises.
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Paid for by the supporters of Hoosiers for Life, a tax exempt non-profit organization under IRC 501(c)(4) which does not endorse, support, or oppose candidates for election.
www.hoosiers4life.com