The basis of the Roe v. Wade decision:
The Supreme Court based its abortion access decision on the right of personal privacy which the court finds implicit in the Due Process Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution. "Due process of law is a legal concept that ensures the government will respect all of a person's legal rights instead of just some or most of those legal rights, when the government deprives a person of life, liberty, or property. Due process has also been interpreted as placing limitations on laws and legal proceedings in order to guarantee fundamental fairness, justice and liberty" to all citizens. 3 The Supreme Court has determined that the due process clause implies that governments cannot pass legislation that intrudes too deeply into the personal life of its citizens. There are limits to the ability of states to control personal behavior. [ST's note: I thought conservatives were suppose to not want government intrusion into personal lives...you know...small government and all]
Section 1 of the Amendment states:
"All persons born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States and of the State wherein they reside. No State shall make or enforce any law which shall abridge the privileges or immunities of citizens of the United States; nor shall any State 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." (The due process clause is emphasized) 2
Under this clause, the U.S. Supreme Court has "...recognized such rights and the right to an early abortion, the right to use contraceptives, [and] the right to medical treatment..." 2 For opposite-sex couples, the court has also recognized "...the right to marry." 2 In mid-2003, the court also based its Lawrence v. Texas ruling on the right to privacy. That decision gave homosexual and heterosexual adults the right to engage in private consensual sexual activities, even if society generally disapproved of the behavior.
Mr. Justice Stewart referred to the Fourteen Amendment when he issued a concurring statement in Roe v. Wade. He wrote, in part: "Clearly, therefore, the Court today is correct in holding that the right asserted by Jane Roe is embraced within the personal liberty protected by the Due Process Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment. It is evident that the Texas abortion statute infringes that right directly. Indeed, it is difficult to imagine a more complete abridgment of a constitutional freedom than that worked by the inflexible criminal statute now in force in Texas." |
