What have we done with truth?

The case of Planned Parenthood of SE Pennsylvania vs Casey arose from a challenge to five provisions of the Pennsylvania Abortion Control Act of 1982; among the provisions were requirements for a waiting period, spousal notice, and (for minors) parental consent prior to undergoing an abortion procedure.  The Court overturned the Roe trimester framework in favor of a viability analysis, thereby allowing states to implement abortion restrictions that apply during the first trimester of pregnancy. In its "key judgment," the Court overturned Roe's strict scrutiny standard of review of a state's abortion restrictions with the undue burden standard, under which abortion restrictions would be unconstitutional when they were enacted for "the purpose or effect of placing a substantial obstacle in the path of a woman seeking an abortion of a nonviable fetus."

Everyone thought that this might have been the moment to overturn Roe.  It was not.  Shifting positions created a split decision in which only the first few paragraphs of the opinion were agreed upon but there was no heart in the justices to undo Roe at its core.  In the opinion, the court felt for the pulse of the time and put into legal language what has now born its terrible fruit of a personal truth, true for the individual at the moment but without any ability to reach beyond that person without consent.  They wrote it this way:

"At the heart of liberty is the right to define one’s own concept of existence, of meaning, of the universe, and of the mystery of human life" (Planned Parenthood of SE Pennsylvania v. Casey, 505 U.S. 833, 851 (1992)).  Written by Justice Anthony Kennedy.

If liberty cannot mean the right to define by each individual their own concept of existence, meaning, the nature of the world, and the mystery of human life, the count seemed to say it was not liberty at all.  Except that this was a venture onto the unsure ground that our nation had never traipsed upon before -- at least not in the official language of justice and law.  Imagine the absurdity of this statement in defining abortion as good and then equating this with the stuff of the universe and the meaning of human life.  The triumph of the autonomous self has turned the individual into an imperial humanity without qualification.  Neither family nor community, nation nor culture, truth or morality brings us together except the common cause of our individualism.  Note how natural law and moral law and even the very institutions of marriage and family are sidetracked before the sacred altar of self.  What happened to "we hold these truths to be self-evident?"

In the end, Roe was finally overturned but not the idea of this individual, imperial, autonomous self.  That remains and is now so deeply embedded in our souls that it will be hard even to address much less overcome.  If is the ultimate falsehood parading as our most noble truth.  It is what some have called the “tyranny of relativism” and subjectivism.  Alas, when we shift the locus of truth from the object (reality) to the subject (the individual), “truth” becomes something fragile and truth ends up being the cause for the rawest pursuit of power and control.  It would be hard to see how this has not resulted in the combative and violent shape of our society and the way we insist upon tolerance when we really expect approval.