As always, you can find the Dobbs v. Jackson decision here.

Paragraph 1 of 4

Sentence 3 of 3

This paragraph ends with a compound sentence containing two claims:

“It has been addressed by lawmakers for centuries, and the fundamental moral question that it poses is ageless.”

The claims:

• “[Abortion] has been addressed by lawmakers for centuries.”
• “[T]he fundamental moral question that [abortion] poses is ageless.”

The first claim is pretty simple:

• “[Abortion] has been addressed by lawmakers for centuries.”

This is true in the sense that we have a scattering of documents that indicate people being judged in courts for acts that include abortion. There aren’t many cases, and those cases that do exist don’t reveal the reasons for the decisions, and in some cases aren’t clear about what parts of the judgment apply to which offenses. But, yes. As far as this statement goes, it’s true.

The second claim is a little murkier:

• “[T]he fundamental moral question that [abortion] poses is ageless.”

This reminds me of when I was teaching composition, when the students would use that time-honored strategy of opening an essay with a general statement so broad that it said basically nothing. I can see this in 14-point Arial with 1.5″ margins, probably expressed in language more like, “Abortion has been a round for a long time.”

This is first-draft stuff.

What is being said here? That we don’t know exactly how long people have debated the moral implications of abortion? Or anything else? I imagine the age of the question is determined by the first instance of a human thinking something like, “My midsection is getting big in the same way that Grod’s belly got big before Grod produced a small Grod. Fremble also got bigger in the middle, but the middle-bigness slowed Fremble down so the tiger caught Fremble and ate Fremble. If Fremble hadn’t been big in the middle Fremble might not be tiger scat now. I would like to produce a little Grod, but I would also not like to be a Fremble. What to do?”

But, sure. The question is ageless—whatever that tells us.

These claims are true:

• “[Abortion] has been addressed by lawmakers for centuries.”
• “[T]he fundamental moral question that [abortion] poses is ageless.”