A Democrat senator from Connecticut declined to answer whether a 15-week old unborn child is a human being, reports say.
Relative to the Dobbs v. Jackson Women's Health Organization case which will be tackled by the Supreme Court this year, Sen. Richard Blumenthal was asked about the humanity of an almost four-month baby in the womb.
"The Supreme Court this fall will review a Mississippi law that bans most abortions after 15 weeks of pregnancy. Is an unborn baby at 15 weeks a human being?" CNSNews.com asked Blumenthal.
The Democratic senator, however, did not answer the question directly.
"You know, I'm going to wait for the Supreme Court decision. Right now, abortion at that point in a pregnancy is legal and constitutionally protected, and I believe it should be," he replied.
When the news outlet asked again about the unborn baby's humanity, the senator did not respond.
Blumenthal was Connecticut's former attorney general. As a senator, he supported abortion rights and sponsored the Women's Health Protection Act, forbidding what proponents called "restrictive" laws and regulations on abortion.
In the "Dobbs" case, the constitutionality of the state's "Gestational Age Act" was challenged by the Jackson Women's Health Organization, a Mississippi abortion facility. The law, enacted in March 2018, prohibits abortion after 15 weeks of pregnancy, in exception to cases of fetal abnormalities or medical emergencies.
The U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Mississippi sided with the clinic. The court ruled that the law was unconstitutional and halted its enforcement in the state, holding that "viability marks the earliest point at which the State's interest in fetal life is constitutionally adequate to justify a legislative ban on nontherapeutic abortions." When it was appealed, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 5th Circuit affirmed the district court's ruling.
Thomas Dobbs, the health officer of Mississippi's Department of Health, appealed to the U.S. Supreme Court on June 15, 2020. On May 17 this year, the country's highest court agreed to hear the case.
Three questions were presented by the petitioner but the Supreme Court has decided to look into the question, "whether all pre-viability prohibitions on elective abortions are unconstitutional."
Despite enacting laws to restrict this procedure, abortion is still rampant in United States. In 2016, the country recorded about 623,000 legal abortions, according to the database company, Statista. Abortion rate is highest among women aged 20-24 years, with 19 abortions for every 1,000 individuals. The number is significantly large but the database company said that the figure is already a decrease from what the nation had in the previous years.
Americans are divided on the issue of abortion. A survey conducted in May 2019 reportedly showed that 46% of the American people considered themselves as "pro-choice" while 49% said that they are "pro-life".
The New Yorker said that the "Dobbs" case could set the end of the Roe v. Wade and Planned Parenthood of Southeast Pennsylvania v. Casey, two rulings that legalized abortion and have since killed millions of unborn babies in United States.
