Everand Logo

Welcome to Everand!

  • Discover millions of ebooks, audiobooks, and so much more with a free trial

    Only $11.99/month after trial. Cancel anytime.

    Abortion: What The Founding Fathers Thought About It
    Abortion: What The Founding Fathers Thought About It
    Abortion: What The Founding Fathers Thought About It
    Ebook53 pages42 minutes

    Abortion: What The Founding Fathers Thought About It

    By Duane L. Ostler

    1/5

    ()

    Read preview

    About this ebook

    This book discusses the views of the founding fathers against abortion, including their views on the anti-abortion 'concealment' laws in their day. It also describes how the common law abortion rule was misinterpreted by the court in Roe v. Wade, since it was solely intended to be a rule of evidence by which an abortionist could be convicted. Most importantly, the book tells how the Ninth Amendment was intended to incorporate the founders' views of natural law as part of the Constitution. Natural law in their day, as expressed by such writers as Locke and Montesquieu, required protection of the unborn from the moment of conception.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherDuane L. Ostler
    Release dateAug 3, 2013
    ISBN9781301683352
    Abortion: What The Founding Fathers Thought About It
    Author

    Duane L. Ostler

    Duane L. Ostler was raised in Southern Idaho, and has lived in Australia, Mexico, Brazil, China, Utah, the big Island of Hawaii, and—most foreign of all—New Jersey. He practiced law for over 10 years and has a PhD in legal history. He and his wife have five children and two cats.

    Read more from Duane L. Ostler

    Related to Abortion

    Related ebooks

    Social Science For You

    View More
    View More

    Related podcast episodes

    Related articles

    • Article

      Ewan’s Hidden Battle

      Nov 25, 2021

      Ewan’s Hidden Battle
      6 min read

    • Article

      A History Of American Thought On Abortion: It’s Not What You Think

      Jun 24, 2022

      In a 6-3 majority ruling on Friday, the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade, the 1973 decision giving women the right to abortion. In anticipation of the ruling last week, the Monitor interviewed Geoffrey R. Stone, author of the legal history “Sex a

      5 min read

    • Article

      A Dangerous Event

      Dec 8, 2023

      A Dangerous Event
      3 min read

    • Article

      If By Chance

      Jun 11, 2021

      If By Chance
      8 min read

    • Article

      Chloroform on Quebec Street

      Jun 4, 2020

      Chloroform on Quebec Street
      9 min read

    • Article

      Dear Paul

      Mar 12, 2021

      We start this month’s edition of ‘Dear Paul’ with a challenge. Daniel (@DanielGenealogy) sent me a birth certificate he found, whilst researching for a friend, and it’s the mother’s name that’s the intriguing part: Julia Walsh, formerly Harrington, f

      10 min read

    • Article

      The Conspiracy Theorist

      Jan 5, 2022

      DID YOU KNOW that the Apollo astronauts never set foot on the Moon despite photographs showing they clearly did? Did you know that far from dying in 1979, Elvis Presley is still alive and well and living in Scotland? And did you know that the 9/11 at

      4 min read

    • Article

      Letters

      Feb 18, 2021

      In January’s Letters, Marek Pruszewicz refers to Britain as having an “obsession” with the Second World War, and implies that the British have a deep national conviction that Britain has always been a “good” country. I think he is entirely wrong in t

      4 min read

    • Article

      Cal Thomas: Deep In The Hearts Of Texas Babies

      Sep 7, 2021

      In the matter of a new Texas law banning abortions six weeks after gestation, when a fetal heartbeat can usually be detected by vaginal ultrasound, suppose the headlines had been different? Instead of words like “most restrictive in nation” (The Wall

      2 min read

    • Article

      Works In Progress

      Sep 1, 2020

      Works In Progress
      4 min read

    • Article

      Let’s Wrap This Up

      Jul 15, 2021

      Let’s Wrap This Up
      11 min read

    Related categories

    Reviews for Abortion

    1/5

    2 ratings1 review

    What did you think?

    Tap to rate

    Review must be at least 10 words

    • 1/5
      Actually, this book is far more researched and thoroughly explores the same topic (among other topics): The Founding Myth: Why Christian Nationalism Is Un-American by Andrew Seidel a constitutional scholar.

    Book preview

    Abortion - Duane L. Ostler

    ABORTION: WHAT THE FOUNDING FATHERS THOUGHT ABOUT IT

    by Duane L. Ostler

    Published by Duane L. Ostler, at Smashwords

    This book may be reproduced, copied and distributed solely for non-commercial purposes, and only if the book remains in its complete, original form and contains the copyright notice.

    Cover - stained glass window designed by Terry Robbins of J. & R. Studios

    TABLE OF CONTENTS

    CHAPTER ONE - INTRODUCTION

    CHAPTER TWO - VIEWS OF THE FOUNDING FATHERS ON ABORTION

    CHAPTER THREE - CONCEALMENT LAWS: ABORTION AS A SUBSET OF INFANTICIDE

    CHAPTER FOUR - JOHN LOCKE AND OTHER NATURAL LAW WRITERS ON ABORTION

    CHAPTER FIVE - THE EVIDENTIARY NATURE OF THE COMMON LAW ABORTION RULE

    CHAPTER SIX - A PROPER UNDERSTANDING OF NATURAL LAW AND THE COMMON LAW

    CHAPTER SEVEN - CONCLUSION

    NOTES

    CHAPTER ONE - INTRODUCTION

    In 1973 the U.S. Supreme Court in Roe v. Wade stated that at the time of the adoption of our Constitution ... abortion was viewed with less disfavor than under most American statutes currently in effect.[1] While the court did not discuss the views of the founding fathers[2] regarding abortion, the implication is clear: abortion was supposedly a commonly accepted practice in 1787 America, and therefore must have likewise been acceptable to the founding fathers themselves.

    This book takes issue with any such claim. As will be seen, the founding fathers were firmly against abortion. Furthermore, both colonial statutory law and the common law in that day were also against abortion.

    Some today may wonder why the founders' views about abortion and the statutory and common law in their day even matter. After all, the founders are long gone and the world has changed. Those who view the founders' opinion of abortion as unimportant believe that the shift in values from their day to ours justifies abortion. In short, if the founders would have disapproved of abortion, so what? Why would that have any impact on us?

    This book also takes issue with such a claim. The founders' views of abortion are extremely relevant to us today, since the constitution they gave us prohibits legalization of abortion and provides for protection of the unborn from the moment of conception. This is due to the Ninth Amendment,[3] which deals with unlisted rights. When the founders adopted the Ninth Amendment, it was their intent and understanding that the unspecified rights it was meant to protect would be derived from natural law as understood in their day[4]--and natural law in that day was very strongly in favor of protecting the unborn from the moment of conception, and was strongly against abortion at any point after conception.[5] Hence, any attempt to derive a constitutional 'right' to an abortion would have been unthinkable to the founders, and directly opposite of natural law. Consequently, they would strongly disagree with the Roe v. Wade decision and the legal treatment of abortion in America today.

    CHAPTER TWO - VIEWS OF THE FOUNDING FATHERS ON ABORTION

    Statements by the founding fathers demonstrate a universal disapproval of abortion. One of the best demonstrations of disapproval of abortion is from Benjamin Franklin as a young man. By the year 1728, Franklin was working as a partner in a printing business in Philadelphia, which printed handbills and advertisements. He had formerly been employed by another printer in the city, Samuel Keimer, but had parted company under rather unpleasant circumstances. Now, Franklin and Keimer were printing rivals. It came as no surprise then that when Keimer found out Franklin intended to start his own newspaper, Keimer quickly started one of his own to beat him to it. Resentful of what Keimer had done, Franklin then wrote articles for the only other newspaper in the city whereby he burlesqu'd and ridicul'd Keimer's paper any way he could.[6] One of the first opportunities that presented itself had to do with abortion.

    A portion of Keimer's newspaper was devoted to publishing encyclopedia entries. This was not

    Enjoying the preview?
    Page 1 of 1