Aftermath of State Ballot Initiatives
by Tom Taylor
The Maryland ballot this past November, similar to ballots in several other states, included a referendum in which Maryland residents voted on a proposed amendment to enshrine abortion in the Maryland state constitution. As a Maryland resident and Consistent Life Ethic advocate, I was extremely disappointed that voters approved the amendment. Similar amendments passed in six other states. Voters in three states, thankfully, offered a ray of hope by defeating referendums on the issue.
Going forward, my hope is that voters will come to regret passage of these ballot initiatives, and thereby encourage momentum for change. Adoption of these amendments severely limits the ability of lawmakers to respond to evolving medical knowledge and changing circumstances related to maternal health and fetal development. Legislators need flexibility in drafting laws that best serve the needs of their states’ residents and reflect up-to-date medical knowledge and advancements.
Restricting Legislators
These amendments place a significant constitutional restraint on elected representatives’ flexibility to enact such laws in response to medical advances and also on their ability to add new standards, including health and safety protections for women or other safeguards, related to changing developments.
The restraint arises because an amendment to the constitution becomes part of the fundamental framework of state law, takes precedence over other laws due to its higher legal status, and is very difficult to repeal. As part of the state’s fundamental law, it submits all future legislation to a standard of “strict scrutiny” based on the constitutional provision.
When courts adjudicate a statute passed by the legislature, they typically give deference to the legislature as long as the statute passes a “rational basis” test, meaning that it is considered a reasonable law. Further, the statute can be amended, replaced, or repealed through subsequent legislative action as facts, circumstances, or public opinion change.
With a constitutional amendment in place, courts give priority consideration to the foundational document over any rational basis test applied to the statute passed. The practical result is to put a chilling effect on legislatures’ willingness to enact new laws. Any legislation that is passed is likely to be subjected to legal challenge, unlikely to pass the “strict scrutiny” standard that courts apply to constitutional provisions, and therefore unlikely to survive court review.
Responding to New Medical Discoveries
Medical research and technology continually reveal new knowledge about pregnancy and fetal development. Already, fetal surgery can occur as early as 16 weeks, and a web search of articles and studies about pregnancy discloses the rapid and complex fetal development that occurs from the very beginning of gestation. The human body undergoes more change before birth than at any other stage of development.
To cite an example, recent research shows that sensory development begins in utero, well before birth. Babies’ development in the womb includes sensing the world around them as well as the necessary physical changes that will enable them to function following birth.
This sensory development plays an important role in infant attachment to the mother. It also initiates the process of learning about the postnatal world the new-born will inhabit after birth. The research indicates that the fetus is responding to the external world long before birth. Further research and medical technology development are likely to reveal even more knowledge that will call for appropriate responses.
There also is an urgent need to improve maternal health during pregnancy, especially for women in vulnerable groups. Ongoing study is likely to reveal new knowledge that will improve maternal health outcomes as well.
Approval of the Maryland amendment and similar amendments will severely restrict the ability of legislators to enact fitting measures in response to such new developments in fetal and maternal healthcare. However, Consistent Life supporters can continue to serve an advocacy role within this legislative landscape by engaging legislators and the public about emerging evidence in fetal and pregnancy research.
Responsibility to Entire Living World
From a consistent life point of view, these advocacy arguments also can be approached (and strengthened) through an ecological perspective that links protection for the preborn with protection of nature. Damage to nature also is at odds with consistent life principles, and environmental protection is an issue that resonates with many citizens and legislators.
Humanity enjoys a reciprocal relationship with the entire living world and is called to responsibility and good stewardship of this relationship. In Maryland, legislators have honored this reciprocity by enacting significant legislation for environmental protection and stewardship.
It behooves society to also think of preborn, developing lives as part of the living world and this reciprocal relationship. Respect for our natural heritage calls us to be good stewards of the human birth process as well. Just as the seeds of food crops and garden plants go through stages of development underground before emerging, developing human life experiences myriad stages of complex development before birth.
It is our duty as human beings with responsibility for the entire living world to exercise good stewardship in the process of human development leading to birth. And let us emphasize that every currently living person once existed at these early stages.
Future Steps
Moving forward in response to the Maryland amendment and similar measures, let us stay engaged in advocacy with our legislative representatives to honor this wisdom of reciprocity and responsibility within the natural human development process.
Let us look for opportunities to plant seeds and create momentum for change in the legislative process. Let us work to foster a sentiment of good stewardship of developing life in its earliest stages within our legislative bodies. Let us highlight the need for flexibility to address new developments and knowledge about pregnancy, maternal health, and fetal development. Let us lobby for appropriate measures along these lines. Voices in advocacy can change the narrative.
Pointing to the connection between nature and ecology and the natural progression of human conception, development, and birth offers a different perspective and channel for dialogue on the abortion issue. It raises issues of consistency between care for the environment and care for the vulnerable, preborn members of the natural world. In this way of thinking, protecting the preborn is consistent with protecting the natural world and its land, water, air, forests, habitat, and biodiversity. We can call on citizens and their elected representatives to seek full protection for both the preborn members of the natural world and all of its ecological resources.
In the wake of ballot initiatives, the advocacy group AAPLOG (American Association of Pro-Life Obstetricians and Gynecologists) suggests supportive actions such as:
- Defending existing regulations still in place that may face legislative or judicial challenges arising from passage of ballot initiatives.
- Pushing for better data reporting on abortion numbers and associated complications as a common-sense public health measure that provides full and accurate health statistics. Data collection can reveal issues and deficiencies of care that will need to be addressed and demonstrate the need for regulations and safeguards. AAPLOG states that, in the United States, such reporting is generally not adequate to provide meaningful conclusions. The state of Maryland does not publicly report this information at all.
- Advocating for and supporting local pregnancy resource centers to make life-serving options widely known in communities and reduce the factors that contribute to abortion decisions.
- Advocating on legislation at the federal level.
Authentic witness can still change hearts and minds and lead to eventual changes in the law. Consistent Life principles can continue to shine a light and offer a guideway that leads society toward a life-affirming path that honors the natural world in its fullest sense.
“Become Nonviolent Towards All Life”
For signposts along this route, we can point to two notable champions of consistent life principles who also exemplify humanity’s reciprocal relationship with nature – environmental activist Wangari Maathai and farmworker leader Cesar Chavez.
Maathai, the 2004 Nobel Peace Prize recipient, opposed abortion and founded the Green Belt Movement in Kenya with the dual purpose of empowering women and girls and reforesting land. Chavez, who embedded nonviolence principles in the farmworker movement, asserted: “Only when we have become nonviolent towards all life will we have learned to live well with others.” During his leadership, United Farmworker health clinics did not allow abortions, and Chavez adopted a vegetarian diet out of concern for animals.
We also can look to the words of Albert Schweitzer, noted for his Reverence for Life philosophy: “Until we extend our circle of compassion to all living things, humanity will not find peace.”
Legislative action can align with these sentiments as well.
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For ongoing coverage of upcoming referendums, see our website: Peace and Life Referendums
For more of our posts, see:
Presidential Election 2024: Consistent Life Perspectives
Summary of Results: Peace & Life Referendums 2024
What History Shows: The Consistent Life Ethic Works for Pro-life Referendums
Stewardship and the Consistent Life Ethic



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