In Dobbs v Jackson Women's Health Organization, the Supreme Court overturned the 50 year precedent, Roe v Wade, allowing for immediate state level bans on abortion.
What philosophical ideas led the Supreme Court to overturn Roe v Wade? Why were defenders of abortion rights unable to succeed in their defense? What political options are available now for those who still want to safeguard abortion rights, and individual freedom, in America?
Join Yaron Brook, Onkar Ghate, and Ben Bayer this week for a special joint episode of New Ideal Live and the Yaron Brook Show. They will examine the reasoning behind both the Dobbs decision and the dissent, and discuss the path forward for individual freedom in America.
Among the topics covered:
● How the majority opinion empties the right to liberty of its content;
● Justice Clarence Thomas’s opposition to substantive due process;
● Why the Ninth Amendment has not been used in Supreme Court rulings on abortion;
● The incrementalism behind Chief Justice John Roberts’s concurrence;
● Why Roe v. Wade was a good decision despite its imperfect reasoning;
● The dissent’s defense of individual liberty against majority will;
● The dissent’s forceful protest against the unprincipled, anti-individualist majority opinion;
● Why the dissent is right that the majority is inconsistent with its own reasoning in claiming that abortion is different from other rights;
● Questions about whether the court typically tailors its reasoning to fit a pre-decided outcome;
● The problem with the viability standard and the idea of balancing rights with a “state interest” in the fetus;
● How the dissent undermines its own case by citing Lochner v. New York as a case that was rightly overturned;
● How the morality of self-sacrifice contributed to the Dobbs ruling and the dissent’s failure to cite the right to the pursuit of happiness;
● Why the widespread acceptance of collectivist premises have contributed to the abridgement of abortion rights;
● Why the concept of “states’ rights” is an expression of collectivism;
● How the fight over abortion rights will continue at the state and federal level.
Mentioned in this podcast are the New Ideal Live episodes “Roe v Wade on the Brink” and “The Supreme Court Abortion Leak vs. the Rule of Law,” Bayer’s book Why the Right to Abortion Is Sacrosanct, and Rand’s lecture “Censorship: Local and Express,” also published in her book Philosophy: Who Needs It.
The podcast was recorded on June 29, 2022.
0:00:00 Introduction
0:01:13 An empty right to liberty
0:05:30 Justice Thomas
0:11:16 Ninth Amendment
0:14:50 Justice Roberts's incrementalism
0:17:18 Roe: A good but flawed decision
0:23:21 Dissent's defense of liberty
0:28:01 Dissent's protest against majority
0:35:21 Majority's inconsistency
0:40:11 Predecided outcome
0:43:20 Viability and balancing
0:50:37 Dissent endorsing Lochner
0:58:25 Self-sacrifice v. happiness
1:04:39 Collectivist premises
1:15:01 "States' rights" = collectivism
1:19:03 Future fights
