On Tuesday, October 19, the Boston College Pro-Life Club hosted Dr. J. David Franks, who gave a talk titled, “The Republic After Roe: Pro-Life Responsibility for the American Proposition” in Higgins Hall 310. Franks, who received his PhD in systematic theology from Boston College, currently serves as the Chairman for the Board of Massachusetts Citizens for Life.
Franks presented a review of the constitutional history of abortion. While calling the 1973 Roe v. Wade decision “the great symbol” of legalized abortion in the United States, he explained how the 1992 Planned Parenthood v. Casey decision is currently the one controlling abortion legislation in the United States. It upheld the central ruling of Roe v. Wade, but allowed restrictions on abortion if they did not impose an “undue burden” on a woman seeking an abortion.
Franks noted that the decision in Roe v. Wade—that any restriction on abortion in the first trimester of pregnancy violates the Due Process Clause of the 14th Amendment of the U.S. Constitution—followed a legal situation in the late 1960s and early 1970s where certain states “liberalized” their abortion laws.
“It must be noted,” Franks continued, “that even in Roe the right to abortion is not absolute. Over and over it’s reasserted, the state has interests in regulating abortion. The state can’t regulate in the first trimester, but can in the second for the health of the mother … and after viability the state can regulate abortion, or even outlaw it, presumably, for the sake of what they call potential human life.”
Franks then highlighted Doe v. Bolton, a companion case to Roe v. Wade, saying there is “no meaningful restriction on abortion throughout all 40 weeks of pregnancy” as a result of its decision, which “carves out a health exemption” pertaining to “all factors physical, emotional, psychological, familial, and a woman’s age.”
Franks then discussed the Supreme Court’s upholding of a 2007 federal partial birth abortion ban as “the first time [since Roe] that you actually have a limit placed on abortion,” continuing by noting that the U.S. is one of the seven nations in the world, including China and North Korea, to allow elective abortions after 20 weeks of pregnancy.
The 2016 Whole Woman’s Health v. Hellerstedt case, which struck down a Texas law requiring abortion clinics to meet standards including having hospital admitting privileges, introduced the concept of access to the legal debate over abortion, moving “from a due process concern to an equal protection [concern].”
Franks said he was “hopeful” about the upcoming Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Supreme Court case, in which oral arguments begin on December 1, challenging a Mississippi law banning abortion after 15 weeks except in cases to protect a mother’s life, in medical emergency, or due to fetal abnormality.
Conversely, Franks was “not happy” about the enforcement mechanism of the recent Texas Heartbeat Act, which allows any citizen to sue anyone aiding or abetting in abortion in civil court. While Franks agreed pro-lifers should be happy that the law reduces abortions, he was wary of the potential legal consequences of such a mechanism, which could result in a precedent where states could essentially nullify any federal law.
Franks, in considering the effects of a potential overturn of Roe v. Wade, described Moe v. Secretary of Administration and Finance, a 1981 Massachusetts Supreme Court decision enshrining a fundamental right to abortion in Massachusetts. Franks noted that an overturn of Roe v. Wade is not a final goal of the pro-life movement, as its overturning would revert abortion legislation to the states, which “doesn’t change anything in Massachusetts” and “won’t change anything in most states,” and that “the work of a democracy is you have to convince your fellow citizens.”
Adam is a senior from Columbus, Ohio. He previously served as Campus News and Culture Editor, and boasts the title of least cultured to ever serve as the latter. Holding a minor in Biology, he recently converted from STEM and now majors in Philosophy and Classical Studies. He currently leads Una Voce, the Latin Mass society at BC, and sings with the University Chorale of Boston College and the Chorale Chamber Singers. He enjoys Gregorian Chant, relearning the clarinet, and is an unabashed Ohio apologist.
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