Amid arguments in the Senate over whether the impeachment of former President Donald Trump is constitutional, and in the House over whether $1.9 trillion is enough money to borrow and distribute to select taxpayers and institutions, there have been rumblings among Democrats to make it more difficult for the Supreme Court to invalidate or permit states to gnaw away at Roe v. Wade.

Roe v. Wade is the 1973 Supreme Court opinion that essentially establishes — within the privacy of the patient-physician relationship — the right to choose to abort a baby in the womb. The opinion holds that during the first trimester of pregnancy, the states have no interest in regulating abortion beyond the health of the mother. During the second trimester, the states can regulate the procedures used, but they may not ban or interfere with abortions. During the third trimester, the states may ban or permit abortions.

Roe's medical cornerstone is viability — the ability of the baby to live outside the womb. In 1973, viability, generally, was at the beginning of the third trimester. Today, viability is closer to conception. Hence, state regulations protecting post-viable pre-third trimester babies.

Roe's legal cornerstone is the absence of personhood. The opinion offers that because philosophers, theologians, scientists and physicians cannot agree on when personhood attaches, then neither will the justices of the Supreme Court. Thus, Roe declares that the baby in the womb is not a person. Yet, legally, if the baby in the womb is a person, then a host of constitutional protections insulate the baby from being killed by her mother and her physician.

The Fifth Amendment prevents the federal government — which gives millions a year to Planned Parenthood — from impairing life, liberty and property of people without due process. The 14th Amendment prohibits the states from impairing life, liberty and property without due process, compels them to treat persons within their borders similarly — what is an unlawful killing for me is an unlawful killing for thee — and compels the states to guarantee privileges and immunities; foremost among which is the right to live.

I offer this brief constitutional explanation of Roe as a background to discuss what is coming our way.

Coming our way is a massive effort by pro-abortion forces at the state and federal levels to shore up Roe — to insulate it from interference by the Supreme Court — and thereby make abortions more available and, in some states, performed at taxpayer expense. President Joseph R. Biden has stated that he wants Congress to enact a statute that will put into positive law the right of every woman to kill her unborn child at any time, irrespective of what various states have enacted to preserve the lives of unborn children.

Is the baby in the womb a person? Biden does not want to answer that question. I don't know how conversant he is in philosophy or constitutional law, or common sense, but he won't go near this.

Last week, the Senate defeated a measure that would have protected the lives of babies who survive abortions. Some abortions involve the slaughter of the baby in the womb and the methodical removal of her remains. Some involve the chemically induced expulsion of the baby from the womb, which usually kills the baby, but not always. The Senate vote was not only humanly repulsive — it permitted the states to permit the mother and the abortionist to let the surviving baby die — it violated the obligation of the government to uphold the Constitution.