Abortion Constitutional Rights in the United States

Abortion Rights

With many state legislatures in 2013 adopting new limits on abortions, the United States Supreme Court opted to review a case dealing with a state’s ability to restrict the use of prescription drugs to induce an abortion. (Cline v. Oklahoma Coalition for Reproductive Justice, 292 P.3d 27 (Okla. 2012), cert. granted, 133 S.Ct. 2887 (2013).) At issue is an Oklahoma statute that prohibits the use of certain drugs to induce abortions unless they are administered according to the specific protocols provided in the FDA-approved labels. Because doctors have come to use the drugs differently than this (at lower dosages, for example), the challengers contend the law will greatly (and unconstitutionally) restrict drug-induced abortions.

The lower courts struck down the Oklahoma law because it posed an impermissible undue burden on a woman’s right to have an abortion. The Supreme Court granted certiorari but in an unusual move said that it would hold the case, asking the Oklahoma Supreme Court to clarify exactly what the law prohibits with regard to the use of these drugs.

Abortion and the Constitution

United States Constitution

According to the Encyclopedia of the American Constitution, about its article titled ABORTION AND THE CONSTITUTION, the story of abortion and the Constitution is in part an episode in the saga of substantive due process. During the period from the early 1900s to the mid-1930s, the Supreme Court employed the principle of substantive due process the principle that governmental action. (read more about Constitutional law entries here). See also Roe v. Wade and the Right to Abortion.

Resources

See Also

• US Abortion Laws Resources
• National Abortion Rights Action League
• Anti-Abortion Movement
• List of Civil Rights/Constitutional Books
• Constitutional Protection Of The Right To Privacy
• Roe V. Wade
• Abortion
• Constitutional Rights
• Incidental Burdens on Constitutional Rights
• Constitutional Protection Of Personal Rights