There is no mention of abortion in the Constitution so it can’t be protected. However, in a recent essay, Andrew Koppelman challenges this assertion on originalist grounds: forced reproduction was intrinsic to slavery, which the framers of the Thirteenth Amendment sought to prohibit.
As Roe v. Wade and I turn 40, we get closer to middle age. A little wiser and more battle-worn than we were at 16. We know more than we did then about how and why abortion must remain safe and legal.
Last week, the Texas Health And Human Services Commission disabled the problem-riddled online provider search function on its Texas Women's Health Program website, which has, for months, directed low-income women seeking pap smears to call endoscopy clinics and pediatric offices.
Roe also acknowledges a related fact: until its passage women’s bodies, legally speaking, functioned like production facilities, holding tanks, regulated environments, the property of the men who impregnated them.
