Abortion and the Privacy Amendment
A U.S. citizen's "right to privacy" was first discussed in an 1890 Harvard Law Review article in which two Boston lawyers, Louis Brandeis and Samuel Warren, defined it as "the right to be let alone." Since then, the right to privacy has provided the basis for a stream of revolutionary and controversial constitutional interpretations by courts across the United States, culminating in the U.S. Supreme Court's Roe v. Wade decision in 1973. Although decisions have come down in favor of a right to privacy, they are largely based on a broad and disputed interpretation of the Fourteenth Amendment. With the plethora of privacy issues that confront courts and policymakers in the current information age, the time for an amendment specifying the inalienable right to privacy is quickly approaching.
Despite all the social, medical and religious undertones in the abortion debate, the Roe v. Wade opinion, written by Justice Harry Blackmun, has stood for twenty-four years on the basis that the right to choose an abortion is part of a woman's "right to personal privacy," a right that Blackmun stated is "founded in the Fourteenth Amendment's concept of personal liberty and restrictions upon state action."
However, some contest that the Fourteenth Amendment does not strongly identify an inalienable right to privacy as a constitutional right. Justice Rehnquist, in the dissenting 1973 opinion, wrote, "the Court necessarily has had to find within the scope of the Fourteenth Amendment a right that was apparently completely un-known to the drafters of the Amendment." For this rea-son, some scholars, as well as members of the current Court, consider Roe v. Wade a fragile decision that ...
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This would not be an abortion amendment. Instead, it would protect citizens from intrusions into all parts of their lives. Technology and computers have opened people's file cabinets and family photo albums, and the information revolution has just begun to reinvent the world. The privacy amendment could protect celebrities from an over-zealous press and individual citizens from governmental gene records or medical record banks. It could allow the courts to decide what information can be released for the public good, and it could allow the future issues of privacy to be solved with respect to personal rights. Without an amendment, the United States could become increasingly dependent on a questionable interpretation of the Fourteenth Amendment, leaving citizens standing naked under the beam of a roaming technology spotlight.
The Roe vs. Wade decision held that a woman, with her doctor, could choose abortion in earlier months of pregnancy without restriction, and with restrictions in later months, based on the right to privacy. It invalidated all state laws limiting women's access to abortions during the first trimester of pregnancy based on the Ninth Amendment to the United States Constitution, a part of the Bill of Rights. The Court's decision in this case was that the Ninth Amendment, "the enumeration in the Constitution, of certain rights, shall not be construed to deny or disparage others retained by the people," protected a person's right to privacy.
The right to privacy is nowhere listed in the Bill of Rights, however the First Congress that established the Constitution intended for the concept of right to privacy to be implemented or derived in some way. The Supreme Court decision made due to the case of Roe v. Wade has been called both radical and temperate (Edwards III, Wattenberg, and Lineberry 131). It was first argued in December 13, 1971 by a Texas woman named Norma McCorvey. “A three-judge District Court, which consolidated the actions, held that Roe and Hallford, and members of their classes, had standing to sue and presented justiciable controversies” (Thomas Reuters Business). The case was later appealed by Jane Roe and was sent to the Supreme Court to be tried again. She went by the pseudonym “Jane Roe” in order to keep herself confidential to the public. Jane Roe wanted to terminate her pregnancy by abortion but was prohibited by Texas state law stating that abortion was illegal unless it was required to say the woman’s life which wasn...
Every woman has the right to make any decision that involves her body. Our government has always respected the individual’s right to privacy. A woman’s reproductive system should not be regulated by the government. In the Supreme Court case, Roe v. Wade in 1973, the decision to make abortion legal came in effect (Frohock 1983). Before Roe, many women were pregnant were forced to weigh their respect for the law against their positivism that they were not ready to be mothers. Many women chose to break the law, putting their lives and futures at risk, and decided to get unsafe and expensive procedures.
The Roe v. Wade decision is forever changed and has since impacted the lives of men and women. A criminal statute that did not take into account the stage of pregnancy or other interests than the life of the mother was deemed a violation of Due Process. The government has acceptable regulation about Roe v. Wade. In the first trimester, the state or any government could treat abortion only as a medical decision, leaving medical judgment to the woman 's physician. In the second trimester, the state 's interest was seen as legitimate when it was protecting the health of the mother. After viability of the fetus, the potential of human life could be considered as a legitimate state interest, and the state could choose to "regulate, or even proscribe abortion" as long as the life and health of the mother was protected. (women
Three Works Cited Many people believe abortion is only a moral issue, but it is also a constitutional issue. It is a woman's right to choose what she does with her body, and it should not be altered or influenced by anyone else. This right is guaranteed by the ninth amendment, which contains the right to privacy. The ninth amendment states: "The enumeration in the Constitution, of certain rights, shall not be construed to deny or disparage others retained by the people." This right guarantees the right to women, if they so choose, to have an abortion, up to the end of the first trimester.
As our time together draws to a close, I leave LHS with no further anecdotes of wisdom or quotes dealing with success; only the sincere hope that you immersed yourself in the essence of commencement. Everybody, we’ll all be graduates by the time we leave tonight. Let’s enjoy it. Congratulations to the Lee High School Class of 2006.
South African Archbishop Desmond Tutu wrote, "You are a very special person - become what you are." These words encourage us, the graduating class of 2012, to recognize the goodness and potential in each and every one of us and to go out and excel in the world. We are a diverse group of different aspirations and backgrounds, bound for different corners of the earth to carve out our won individual niches. Before we leave behind Lee Falls High School and each other, we must ask ourselves how we have become who we are.
Guys, I thank you. It has been an honor to serve as your class president. Good luck. Now, I am going to make like America Online Instant Messenger and sign off with an L-O-L. Good bye.
Invited back to my alma mater, Fair Avenue Elementary, I was asked to say a few words, any words, on high school and graduating.
As you inhale the aggregate odor of your senior class for the last time, I’m sure there are many burning questions racing through your minds: “Will I find my place in the world?” If you’re lucky. “Am I really going to graduate a virgin?” Yeah, probably. “Who is that incredibly handsome young man addressing us, and how long do we have the privilege of listening to him?” Howdy, Andrew Gonzales here, and hopefully not long; I realize that your robes are making you sweat, your thongs are making you uncomfortable, and my use of the words “virgin” and “thongs” is making your parents sweaty and uncomfortable.
Social division and Cultural Fair taught us that we're all different, and yet the same.
...g. We have always been a diverse group and naturally, we will go on to different places next year. Class of '06 will enroll in as many schools and work in as many jobs as the variety of people that we come in. But one thing is for sure, and that is we have finally reached the end of our metamorphosis. We are at the final stage now and tomorrow, we will all head off to live very different lives. I myself will be going to the University of Washington next fall. Tonight, we will cease to be Terrace Hawks. Tonight, we will step out of our cocoons, and become new people. Tonight many of us will become Huskies. Others will become Cougars, Trojans, Tritons, Bulldogs, Vikings, and Dolphins. Tonight, we have transformed into the hard-working college student. Tonight, after four years, we have finally metamorphosized. Dunbar Class of 2006, the world is ours, let's go get it!
The opportunities offered me during my four years at County High have been amazing. I have begun to understand all the potential I have to live life. I don't believe it takes a trip abroad to realize all we take for granted here in Hometown, USA. However, amongst the clutter that fills our lives, seldom do we choose to stop and reflect. Today is one day we intentionally set aside for the sentimentality we rarely experience. In only a few months, many of the graduates in front of you will leave home for universities, travel, or jobs. Today is not only your day to acknowledge our accomplishments, but also a time for us to acknowledge all you have given us.
Abortion has been a complex social issue in the United States ever since restrictive abortion laws began to appear in the 1820s. By 1965, abortions had been outlawed in the U.S., although they continued illegally; about one million abortions per year were estimated to have occurred in the 1960s. (Krannich 366) Ultimately, in the 1973 Supreme Court case of Roe v. Wade, it was ruled that women had the right to privacy and could make an individual choice on whether or not to have an abortion during the first trimester of pregnancy. (Yishai 213)
On behalf of the Humphrey graduating Class of 2006, I would like to thank the School District Board of Directors, administrators, teachers along the entire path, and any more members of the Humphrey School District staff. Also, thank you parents, families, and friends for your love and support.