Isilion

I wrote this on a thread in a NYTimes blog. Lest anyone think otherwise I wholeheartedly support Ron Paul for President in 2008. Expect to see more.

At any rate I believe the Abortion issue might set off alarms for many otherwise disaffected “liberal” Democrats who might jump on board the Dr. Paul train for his stance on individual liberty and non-interventionist foreign policy. The topic came up on this thread. I wrote:

The abortion issue is going to be an important one to both sides, but most people don’t realize that while Paul is personally pro-life he does not see a constitutional justification for a federal law banning or allowing it:

“Roe v. Wade was wrongly decided, but not because the Supreme Court presumed to legalize abortion rather than ban it. Roe was wrongly decided because abortion simply is not a constitutional issue. There is not a word in the text of that document, nor in any of its amendments, that conceivably addresses abortion. There is no serious argument based on the text of the Constitution itself that a federal “right to abortion” exists. The federalization of abortion law is based not on constitutional principles, but rather on a social and political construct created out of thin air by the Roe court.

“Under the 9th and 10th amendments, all authority over matters not specifically addressed in the Constitution remains with state legislatures. Therefore the federal government has no authority whatsoever to involve itself in the abortion issue. So while Roe v. Wade is invalid, a federal law banning abortion across all 50 states would be equally invalid.”

His reading of the Constitution says issues of criminal law are left to the states.

“Why are we so afraid to follow the Constitution and let state legislatures decide social policy? Surely people on both sides of the abortion debate realize that it’s far easier to influence government at the state and local level. The federalization of social issues, originally championed by the left but now embraced by conservatives, simply has prevented the 50 states from enacting laws that more closely reflect the views of their citizens. Once we accepted the federalization of abortion law under Roe, we lost the ability to apply local community standards to ethical issues.”

These quotes are from http://www.lewrockwell.com/paul/paul301.html

If you are wondering about where Dr. Paul stands on most every issue, you should spend a bit of time here: http://www.lewrockwell.com/paul/paul-arch.html

You won’t find a collection like that for Clinton, Obama, Edwards, Giuliani, Romney or McCain. They are more concerned about sniffing the prevailing winds than deriving positions based on principle.

— Posted by CK

I received the following response:

Thankyou , CK, for clarifying his thoughts on abortion.

I get it now, if it’s not covered in the Constitution, it’s not for the Federal Gov’t. to decide.

Oh happy day! A strict Constitutionalist! We could use a little of that here in America the beautiful.

Sign me- another Democrat voting for Ron Paul-

— Posted by Anne