Skip to content
Search

Latest Stories

Top Stories

Alabama, religious freedom and frozen embryos

Close up of a person working in lab

A doctor prepares embryo cultivation plates in a fertility lab.

Carlos Duarte/Getty Images

McHugh is a board member ofLawyers Defending American Democracyand a former Massachusetts Appeals Court justice.

The Alabama Constitution provides that "no religion shall be established by law" and that "the civil rights, privileges, and capacities of any citizen shall not be in any manner affected by his religious principles." Those prohibitions were forcefully reinforced in a 1998 Religious Freedom Amendment. Like similar provisions of the First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, those prohibitions are designed to ensure a democratic form of government in Alabama, instead of the theocratic form that roiled the European societies from which early American settlers fled.

Against the historical and textual backdrop of those provisions, it is, to put it mildly, surprising to read the concurring opinion of Alabama Chief Justice Tom Parker in LePage v. The Center for Reproductive Medicine, P.C. That now well-known case involved application of Alabama's Wrongful Death of a Minor Act to the accidental destruction of embryos created through in vitro fertilization and stored in what the court described as a "cryogenic nursery.”


The court ruled that the law applied to the embryos and provided a pathway to financial recovery for their destruction. All members of the court agreed that “an unborn child is a genetically unique human being whose life begins at fertilization and ends at death.” Consequently, five of the six justices agreed that a fertilized human egg is a "minor child" covered by the act, regardless of the child’s viability or stage of development.

Sign up for The Fulcrum newsletter

Parker’s concurring opinion reveals that he viewed the court’s decision as a launching pad for exploration of the Sanctity of Unborn Life Amendment, which was adopted in 2018. “Sanctity,” the chief justice said, meant "godliness." While some "advocates of the sanctity of life have attempted to articulate the principle on purely secular philosophical grounds,” he observed, "[t]he common usage of this phrase [refers] to the view that all human beings bear God's image from the moment of conception."

But the chief justice made it clear that "common usage" was not a fundamental key to proper interpretation and application of the phrase. Instead, and after quoting extensively from the 17th century theologian Petrus van Mastricht, the 17th century Geneva Bible, Thomas Aquinas, the Book of Genesis, John Calvin and the Sixth Commandment, he asserted that the Bible and other religious texts supplied that key.

As a result, Parker explained, the cited texts incorporated into Alabama law the proposition that “(1) God made every person in His image; (2) each person therefore has a value that far exceeds the ability of human beings to calculate; and (3) human life cannot be wrongfully destroyed without incurring the wrath of a holy God, who views destruction of his image as an affront to Himself." Consequently, he continued, the word “sanctity” in the Sanctity of Life Amendment means that "even before birth, all human beings bear the image of God, and their lives cannot be destroyed without defacing His glory."

Summing up those observations, the chief justice concluded his opinion by saying that “[t]he People of Alabama have declared the public policy of this State to be that unborn human life is sacred. We believe that each human being, from the moment of conception, is made in the image of God, created by Him to reflect His likeness. It is as if the People of Alabama took what was spoken of the prophet Jeremiah and applied it to every unborn person in this state: ‘Before I formed you in the womb I knew you. Before you were born I sanctified you.’ Jeremiah 1:5 (NKJV 1982). All three branches of Government are subject to a constitutional mandate to treat each unborn human life with reverence. Carving out an exception for the people in this case, small as they were, would be unacceptable to the People of this State, who have required us to treat every human being in accordance with the fear of a holy God who made them in His image."

That conclusion, of course, is fertilizer for a theocracy. It is difficult enough for the government to deal in democratic fashion with the often-difficult issues that lie at the intersection of individual autonomy, constitutional rights and public policy. But the democratic process and the tugs and pulls of and between citizens with interests in the outcome have, with a few notable exceptions, made it work for more than 200 years. Injecting religion into that process dramatically reduces the likelihood that the process will continue to produce useful results.

Read More

America and the Magic Order of US

Lady Liberty

Provided by Sarah Beckerman

America and the Magic Order of US

Part I - The Ministry Denies It

Like many true elder millennials, I find comfort in escaping into fantasy worlds – Harry Potter, Lord of the Rings, Star Wars. But lately, these stories haven’t just been a break from the chaos of real life. They’ve become a lens for understanding it. They remind me what courage looks like when the odds are stacked, and what it means to stand up, not just to threats to justice, but to silence, complicity, and fear.

Lately, I’ve been thinking less about the final battles, the catharsis, the clarity, the triumphant arrival of friends. We’re not there yet. Not even close. What I keep returning to is Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, the part of the story where everything tightens. The danger is real. The protagonists are scattered. The institutions are eroding. And the air gets heavy with denial and dread.

Keep ReadingShow less
Nevada House Speaker Says It's Time to Give the State's Largest Voting Bloc Access to Primaries

Las Vegas, Nevada sign

Photo by Grant Cai on Unsplash.

Nevada House Speaker Says It's Time to Give the State's Largest Voting Bloc Access to Primaries

LAS VEGAS, NEV. - Nevada’s largest registered voting bloc – unaffiliated voters – could soon gain access to the state’s taxpayer-funded primaries, if a new bill from Democratic Nevada House Speaker Steve Yeager becomes law.

The bill, AB597, was introduced Monday with one week left in the session. It gives registered unaffiliated voters the option to submit an online request for a party's primary ballot no later than 14 days ahead of a primary or during in-person voting.

Keep ReadingShow less
Eliminating HIV Prevention Is a Public Health Crisis

A vaccine bottle and syringe for an injection preventing HIV.

Getty Images, Kitsawet Saethao

Eliminating HIV Prevention Is a Public Health Crisis

The Trump administration is planning to eliminate the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s (CDC) Division of HIV Prevention. The collapse of HIV prevention will mean 143,000 additional people in the United States will acquire HIV in the next five years. We are on the cusp of a public health crisis.

The most recent attack on the reproductive health center in Palm Springs is a wake-up call to what could be to come if we continue to be bystanders in the erasure of reproductive and sexual health rights. A profound crack in an already fragile public health infrastructure continues to grow as government officials consider eliminating vital public health structures that monitor health trends, outbreaks, and our ability to prepare and respond to an ongoing HIV epidemic.

Keep ReadingShow less
Congress Bill Spotlight: Preventing Presidential Inaugurations on MLK Day, Like Trump’s

Donald Trump takes office for his second term as the 47th President of the United States.

Getty Images, Pool

Congress Bill Spotlight: Preventing Presidential Inaugurations on MLK Day, Like Trump’s

The Fulcrum introduces Congress Bill Spotlight, a weekly report by Jesse Rifkin, focusing on the noteworthy legislation of the thousands introduced in Congress. Rifkin has written about Congress for years, and now he's dissecting the most interesting bills you need to know about, but that often don't get the right news coverage.

President Donald Trump falsely claimed his January 6, 2021 speech preceding the Capitol Building riot “had more people” in attendance than Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s “I Have a Dream” speech.

Keep ReadingShow less