abortion and the constitution

JQP has a very interesting take on abortion here.

I can't keep up with his discussion on natural rights and quickening (in a Biblical sense, I wonder?), but his point is one that I hadn't heard before. If he's right, and our Constitution doesn't protect life until it's 21 weeks old, then I may have to rethink just how much of a constructionist I really am.

As I see it, the issue here is life and death. And a person has the right to live until that person does something deserving of death. (Note that I'm not talking about eternal life and death here.) If the Constitution doesn't explicitly prohibit one form of murder, should such murder still be allowed? Of course not. So I suppose I'm closer to the "living, breathing document" side than JQP is, but if the alternative is to throw our hands up and allow actions we know are unjust simply because they happened to be allowed by our founding document then I think I'm in the right on this one.

Another thing...the Constitution doesn't go into detail on exactly when life begins so it seems futile to try to pin the language down in this case. It's hard to imagine the Founding Fathers condoning any type of abortion. I suspect it wasn't even on the radar screen at that time. If we're going on intent then I would think the Constitution would imply the opposite; that is, that all humans have the right to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness regardless of age.

Very interesting...maybe I'll have more on this soon. I'd sure like to learn a bit more about the details.