Reflections on the Anniversary of Dred Scott and its Uncanny Parallels to Roe v. Wade

"Likewise, we cannot survive as a free nation when some men decide that others are not fit to live and should be abandoned to abortion or infanticide." President Ronald Reagan 

Dred Scott - circa 1857

By Dave Andrusko
National Right to Life

Tip of the hat to POLITICO for an excellent piece by Andrew Glass reminding us that it was this day, 161 years ago, that the Supreme Court handed down its awful Dred Scott v. Sanford decision. 

As Glass observes: On this day in 1857, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled 7 to 2 that all African Americans living in the United States — slaves as well as free persons — could never become citizens. It also invalidated the Missouri Compromise of 1820, thereby permitting slavery in every federal territory.

Likewise Roe v. Wade to which pro-lifers routinely compare Dred Scott, permitted unlimited abortion in all 50 states. And just as Dred Scott “inflamed passions,” so did Roe v. Wade

Note to newcomers: the High Court’s vote in Dred Scott was 7-2 as was Roe v. Wade. And just as Justices Byron White and William Rehnquist eloquently dissented in Roe, so, too, did two Justices– John McLean and Benjamin R. Curtis –passionately dissented in Dred Scott.

Justice Harry Blackmun’s opinion was historically harebrained, as critic after critic (including numerous pro-choice academicians) demonstrated. Interestingly, as Glass writes, Justice Curtis “undercut most of Taney’s historical arguments, showing that African-Americans had voted in several states when the nation was founded.”

Each time the anniversary of Dred Scott comes around, I think of President Ronald Reagan’s analogy in his book, Abortion and the Conscience of a Nation:

Despite the formidable obstacles before us, we must not lose heart. This is not the first time our country has been divided by a Supreme Court decision that denied the value of certain human lives. 


The Dred Scott decision of 1857 was not overturned in a day, or a year, or even a decade. At first, only a minority of Americans recognized and deplored the moral crisis brought about by denying the full humanity of our black brothers and sisters; but that minority persisted in their vision and finally prevailed. They did it by appealing to the hearts and minds of their countrymen, to the truth of human dignity under God.


National Right to Life article continues here