- How the majority opinion empties the right to liberty of its content;
- Justice Clarence Thomas’s opposition to substantive due process;
- Why the Ninth Amendment has not been used in Supreme Court rulings on abortion;
- The incrementalism behind Chief Justice John Roberts’s concurrence;
- Why Roe v. Wade was a good decision despite its imperfect reasoning;
- The dissent’s defense of individual liberty against majority will;
- The dissent’s forceful protest against the unprincipled, anti-individualist majority opinion;
- Why the dissent is right that the majority is inconsistent with its own reasoning in claiming that abortion is different from other rights;
- Questions about whether the court typically tailors its reasoning to fit a predecided outcome;
- The problem with the viability standard and the idea of balancing rights with a “state interest” in the fetus;
- How the dissent undermines its own case by citing Lochner v. New York as a case that was rightly overturned;
- How the morality of self-sacrifice contributed to the Dobbs ruling and the dissent’s failure to cite the right to the pursuit of happiness;
- Why the widespread acceptance of collectivist premises have contributed to the abridgment of abortion rights;
- Why the concept of “states’ rights” is an expression of collectivism;
- How the fight over abortion rights will continue at the state and federal level.
The philosophers at the Ayn Rand Institute – Onkar Ghate, Ben Bayer, and Yaron Brook – have a thought-provoking discussion on abortion rights with the over-turning of Roe v. Wade, which now allows for state-level bans on abortion.(Though this is not the end of abortion in America, it is an ominous stepping stone to it, as those seeking abortions in states where abortion is/will be banned will have to travel out of state to obtain a legal abortion). Issues covered include: