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Abortion
Abortion (from the Latin abortus, meaning an untimely birth) has been practiced, often with little if any moral condemnation, since ancient times to induce premature delivery of a fetus. As with controversies over the death penalty and the right to die, no uniform agreement exists around the world on the validity of a woman’s right to an abortion, and there is seemingly not much middle ground for compromise. In the United States—where abortion has been legal since 1973—the battle over abortion rights has been both divisive and deadly.
Many other countries have liberalized their abortion laws since World War II. Great Britain did so in 1967, and in 1988 Canada’s highest court voided that country’s restrictive abortion laws. A decade later Germany’s constitutional court declared unconstitutional a Bavarian law severely limiting access to abortion. China, because of its overpopulation problem, actually encourages abortions. However, the procedure is restricted or prohibited in Latin America, Africa, and India. In some states of the United States abortions are also restricted by legislated demands such as parental notification for minors and waiting periods, controls devised to make the procedure more difficult to obtain.
The right to life is a generally acknowledged human right, but the key question in the abortion debate is exactly when human life begins. Some religious leaders such as the pope have defined human life as beginning at the moment of conception, and some legislators and jurists have emphasized the rights of an unborn child above the rights and wishes of the mother. The right to an abortion, however, has been justified by a woman’s right to make important life-defining decisions with regard to reproduction and her own body and health. Proponents of choice for women also recognize the importance of family planning in a world experiencing rampant overpopulation (see Families; Women).
Before Roe v. Wade
The Constitution does not expressly address abortion, and before 1973 a pregnant woman in the United States had no recognized constitutional right to have one. Poor women and their families were disproportionately affected by the lack of access to safe abortions. Wealthier women could afford to go abroad and pay for an abortion in countries with more liberal abortion laws or where the laws were not enforced as strictly. Poor women were forced to bear children they could not afford to raise or who were simply unwanted. Where illegal abortions could be had, conditions were often unsanitary and medically unsafe, greatly increasing the risk of harm to women seeking abortions and sometimes resulting in their death.
In its landmark decision Roe v. Wade (1973), the Supreme Court reasoned that a woman’s right to an abortion during the first three months of pregnancy was a “fundamental” liberty (see Fundamental Rights). The Court’s 7–2 decision was based on a woman’s right of privacy, a right used in Griswold v. Connecticut (1965) to invalidate a state law that prohibited married couples from using contraceptives. The Court held that a state law infringing a woman’s right to an abortion was an unconstitutional denial of substantive due process of law, guaranteed by the Fourteenth Amendment (1868). In earlier cases the Court had used substantive, as opposed to procedural, due process to invalidate government action that infringed a person’s right to life, liberty, or property where no legitimate government interest could be established. (In regulating private activity, courts use substantive due process to limit government powers, whereas they use procedural due process to ensure that fundamental fairness and rights are observed.)
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