The Constitution specifies only three federal crimes-treason, piracy, and counterfeiting. So whether you think performing OR preventing an abortion is a crime – it’s still something that the federal government is not authorized to deal with.

State Constitutions in California, Connecticut and elsewhere have a greater protection for the ability to have an abortion than the federal government does.

And recently, a group in Nevada filed an initiative petition “that seeks to define a person and override Nevada’s abortion laws.”

The Nevada “personhood” initiative would amend the state constitution by defining a person and extend due process rights to “everyone possessing a human genome” from the beginning of biological development through end of life.

Obviously, this is a very sensitive and heated issue in our society – but the Founders and Ratifiers recognized that there would always be divisive issues in any country. That’s why they gave us a federal system where issues like this would be handled close to home – where laws and regulations best match the interests of the people living there.

Michael Boldin