The underlying constitutional issue is whether the State can resolve these philosophic questions in such a definitive way that a woman lacks all choice in the matter, except perhaps in these rare circumstances in which the pregnancy is itself a danger to her own life or health, or is the result of rape or incest "(page 252, American Government. ) Justice Sandra is describing that women have the right to privacy and the right to choose to have an abortion. Supreme Court Chief Justice William H. Rehnquist argued that:"Petitioners argued before the District Court that the statutory definition was inadequate because it did not cover three serious conditions that pregnant women can suffer- preeclampsia, inevitable abortion, and prematurely ruptured membrane…In construing the medical emergency provision, the Court of Appeals first observed that all three conditions do indeed present the risk of serious injury or death when an abortion is not performed, and noted that the medial procession’s uniformly prescribed treatment for each of the three conditions is an immediate abortion.Finding that " the Pennsylvania legislature did not choose the wording of its medical emergency exception in a vacuum,” the court read the exception as it intended “to assure that compliance with its abortion regulations would not in any way pose a significant threat to the life or health of a woman”(page 268, American Government.
) Chief Justice William is saying that abortion is dangerous to the women’s health and it can cause the isk of their own life. In my opinion, the Constitution is so broad in its language, as was intended, that from time to time it becomes the duty of the U. S. Supreme Court to interpret it in order to meet the standards or today, hence making their decision the law of the land.
However, it should also be noted that none of the Justices on the Court were the authors, knew the authors, nor knew their intent as it would apply to today’s society.In Roe v. Wade it was decided that women had a right to privacy and as such had the right to choose to have an abortion. While this is not specifically stated in the Constitution, it was interpreted to be such through the fourteenth amendments guarantee of liberty and due process clause. The problem facing this very controversial issue is that the Constitution does not define when life begins.
The Constitution is in place to protect life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. But does life start at inception or birth?Regardless of what you believe when life begins other simply believe in order to gain constitutional status, it would have to be adopted as an amendment. As of now, abortion is legal because of a Supreme Court ruling. Some view it as a situation of the Supreme Court being allowed to make law, instead of its intended purpose of interpreting existing law made by the legislative and judicial branch. Many more cases involving abortion will be presented to the Supreme Court and future rulings could dramatically change the legality of abortion.
