You keep dodging my question. I don’t care what the founders think. Their thinking was limited by their own self-interests and the norms of their time. They also didn’t believe in equal individual rights, which is really the heart of moral law and the only thing that makes it feasible. They considered some people property and others second class citizens; basically a caste system not much different from the ones that existed in monarchist Europe at the time. If you wanted a coherent and meaningful exposition of natural law theory and individual rights you would have to turn to ‘radicals’ like Thomas Paine or Herbert Spencer in Victorian era England.
My question did not concern the morality of abortion or the desirability of reducing abortion. It was a question of whether the means of getting there was morally right. Your argument rests upon the implict assumption that the state or rather the federalist system is morally legitimate. A defense of this law necessitates a defense of all the evil shit government does, otherwise you’re just retreating to wishful thinking.
Moral Authority!?
That is a somewhat antiquated question. So, here goes: The Divine Right of Kings holds that divine authority flows from God through the King and a network of dukes and lords to the people.
Conservatives in the kings court used to say a Republic is rule and a Kingdom is rule by God.
Islam says that moral authority runs through the Koran. Sharia Law is the only law with divine moral authority.
A lot of people say moral law flows through revelation.
I live in Utah. The LDS Church holds that divine authority flows from God, through the Book of Mormon to the First Presidency and down through a political hierarchy of the LDS priesthood. Did you know that Mormons actually have a ceremony where they crown powerful people as kings?
I guess some people hold that moral authority flows through an infallible Pope.
Some philosophers tried to claim that moral authority flows through elected leaders. Others end up setting up their political party as the moral authority.
The big problem that keeps happening in history is that a large number of people who claim that moral authority flows through them have proven themselves to be rogues.
I like when people discuss morals. I am very skeptical when people claim the source of moral authority.