A House Divided Against Itself on Life and Equal Protection Cannot Stand

When Abraham Lincoln delivered his "House Divided" speech in 1858, he effectively killed his Illinois U.S. Senate bid. But, he also placed himself on the fast track to the White House two short years later.

"A house divided against itself cannot stand," he said. "I believe this government cannot endure, permanently half slave and half free. I do not expect the Union to be dissolved - I do not expect the house to fall - but I do expect it will cease to be divided. It will become all one thing, or all the other."

Donald Trump's claim that abortion should be "left up to the states" is as immoral, ill-considered, and wrong-headed as Stephen A. Douglass' views on popular sovereignty, vis a vis slavery.

The fact is, our Constitution explicitly requires equal protection under the law for the right to life of every innocent person, in every state. It's not optional.

This requirement, and this understanding, jibes perfectly with the natural law moral basis of our republic, as laid out in our national charter, the Declaration of Independence, and with the laws of God, written by His finger in stone.

This republic cannot survive when one class of human beings is excluded from protection for their most essential human right, the right without which no other right can ever be enjoyed.

This Union cannot survive when states are being allowed to intentionally fail in the fulfillment of their primary duty. Trump, and his fellow pro-choice-for-staters, are dead wrong.

Pre-Civil-War constitutional requirement:

"No person shall be deprived of life without due process of law."

Additional post-Civil War requirement:

"No State shall deprive any person of life without due process of law; nor deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws."