As citizens of the United States, we are guaranteed life, liberty, property, the pursuit of happiness, and by the fourteenth amendment, section 1, full and equal protection of the laws. Since we all value such rights, we should respect that amendment and carry it out, so every man, woman, and child – no matter their race or age – may enjoy the peace, freedom, and equal respect and dignity to which Americans are entitled.

According to the first section of Amendment XIV of the Constitution of the United States, “No state shall make or enforce any law which shall abridge the privileges or immunities of citizens of the United States; nor shall any state deprive any person of life, liberty, or property without due process of the law; nor deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws.”1

Unfortunately, many Americans do not honor this, nor do they apply it to every one of their fellow citizens. While most Americans do not deny these rights to their fellow citizens, no matter their race, they fail to give these rights to their own children!

There is still one class of people we discriminate against. This discrimination is much worse than any race discrimination. This discrimination completely denies a human being its status as a human being.

From day one in the womb, a preborn baby is labeled as a “dead tissue” – not a living human being – just because it has not fully developed. This is a most serious discrimination. If we are to deny a baby its human rights because it has not fully developed, then what is to stop us from denying any child its human rights. Any child who is still not full grown, or who has not graduated. From day one in the womb, through birth and the early years through life to death, humans develop, and should not be called tissue just because they are not fully developed.

Doctors, politicians, and other high authorities say it is okay to have an abortion if you do it by a certain time. They say the “tissue” has not fully developed into a human being. They say it is her body and her choice. However, once she is pregnant, she is no longer dealing with her own life, but that of a separate human being. If it was her body, she would be the one who dies.

The fourteenth amendment covers all citizens of America, no matter their race. It should also cover those citizens who have not yet come to their full potential, nor have they been given the chance. We the people of the United States of America and our posterity are entitled to liberty. We are also entitled to property, education, and full and equal protection of the law. But first among these is life. We are entitled to life by every possible means, and the fourteenth amendment is not the least among those means. If the unborn baby is not our posterity, then what is?

Being a United States citizen means being responsible and well-informed. It also means following the laws and standing up for what is right. Soldiers in Iran and Afghanistan die to protect the innocent and our rights every day. We don’t have to die to protect the innocent. We, as citizens, simply need to extend to them – who are citizens – the rights and privileges to which all Americans are entitled.

1 Cornell University Law School – Legal Information Institute tps://www.law.cornell.edu/constitution/amendmentxiv