Rethinking ‘Procreative Liberty’, by John M. Grondelski

By John M. Grondelski, The Catholic Thing. July 7, 2022

John Grondelski (Ph.D., Fordham) is a former associate dean of the School of Theology, Seton Hall University, South Orange, New Jersey. All views herein are exclusively his.

In the wake of the Dobbs decision overturning Roe v. Wade, pro-abortionists are using all sorts of scare tactics to suggest that the ruling and the justices who formed its majority imperil American “rights” and “liberties.” Despite Justice Alito’s assurances that Dobbs is about abortion, fear-mongers cite Justice Thomas’ concurring opinion – in which he attacks the legal notion of substantive due process and not the ethical issues to which it has been applied – to intimate that laws banning interracial marriage are lurking in the wings.

We need to shift that discussion, on its merits, elsewhere. That elsewhere is the notion of “procreative liberty.”

“Procreative liberty,” as developed by the Supreme Court, has been highly individualistic and largely negative. Those assumptions deserve challenge, both because they are unscientific and because they have excluded other legitimate interests. …

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