Justice for Whom?

When asked the question “is justice an important part of the United States?” the majority of Americans would undoubtedly answer, yes. After all, the Constitution itself was created to, “establish justice.” But what does this mean exactly? Justice for whom?
That’s where things get tricky. There are many things that Americans disagree about, but one common theme in our society is the idea of creating justice where injustices exist. This means that in general, it is an American value to try to correct injustices such as the institution of slavery. We, as a nation, after an excruciatingly long and laborious process, came to the consensus that slavery was immoral, and we did away with it. The same applied to correcting the discrimination that was occurring against women and minorities. Eventually, Americans came to their senses. And, eventually we came to the conclusion that all humans should have equal protection under the Constitution. We all hold the same idea that justice is, or at least should be, an inherent value in American society. Nobody likes it when the bad guy gets away with murder, so we've established laws to hold people accountable for doing things such as this, to punish them if they decide to act in ways which negatively effect society.  Likewise, nobody likes to feel as if they are not being granted equal rights, so we have the legal system established as an institution to protect those rights. So, if we all agree that people’s rights should be protected under the Constitution, what’s the problem?
Well, for starters, no one can seem to agree on what defines, “a person.” Many of you have probably heard about the Amendment 48. This is an amendment which has been proposed in Colorado which states that the term, “person” would apply to any human being at the moment of fertilization. The idea is to provide equal rights to all, including these unborn babies, well before the woman is even in her first trimester. It’s no surprise that this is a proposal supported strongly by many right wing conservatives, as well as many hardcore Christians, who have always argued against abortion, at any stage of pregnancy. It’s also no surprise that the proposal is getting a great deal of criticism from pro-choice liberals, who believe that this proposal is an outrage because of several things. They say that the amendment effectively bans birth control in Colorado because essentially, by using birth control to prevent implantation, this would be classified as homicide. In addition pro-choice activists argue that women who suffer a miscarriage could possibly be charged with negligent homicide because they didn’t protect the fertilized egg, even though it may have been so early in her first trimester that she was not even aware she was pregnant.
People will always have their different values and opinions about things, and that’s precisely the point. However, in general as Americans, we all have a consensus that we should abide by the Constitution, which states that, “no State shall deprive any person of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law; nor deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws.” My point is this however, Americans have different backgrounds, religions, and lifestyles which all shape their own personal values. With this particular issue of Amendment 48, although we want to provide equal protection for all people because this would be the “just” thing to do, we can’t seem to agree on what constitutes a person. Our individual religious and personal beliefs have come into conflict with each other, and there is now a defined dissensus among Americans over this issue.