Review article
https://doi.org/10.31337/oz.78.5.5
Rethinking the Right to Abortion in the United States of America
Ivana Tucak
orcid.org/0000-0001-9694-2315
; Kosip Juraj Strossmayer University of Osijek, Faculty of Law in Osijek, Osijek, Croatia
Anita Blagojević
orcid.org/0000-0001-7153-7444
; Kosip Juraj Strossmayer University of Osijek, Faculty of Law in Osijek, Osijek, Croatia
Abstract
In the Roe vs. Wade case (1973) the US Supreme Court adopted the idea of the woman’s right to free choice regarding the termination of pregnancy. Another case instituted before the above court, Planned Parenthood vs. Casey (1992), the so– called “precedent on precedent”, confirmed the main perception of women’s right to abortion, expressed in the previous decision. What both decisions have in common is that they provide a woman with the right to abortion at least until the moment of “the viability” of the fetus and that they do not recognize the fetus as a legal entity. On the other hand, the case of Dobbs vs. Jackson Women’s Health Organization (2022) overruled the most important issues in the previous decisions and, it is safe to say, redirected the development of the right to abortion. Although the latter case did not recognize the fetus’s right to life, the majority of judges held that abortion is not a fundamental constitutional right but a matter of “health and social regulation,” and that the laws regulating it can be constitutionally questioned only if they are “rationally related to a legitimate state interest“. The paper is divided into five main sections. In the first section, the fundamental issues in contemporary legislative debates on abortion are briefly pointed out. The second section critically sets out the main arguments made in Roe while the third does so for the Casey decision. Part four explores the seismic upheaval which occurred after the Supreme Court’s decision in the Dobbs case. Finally, the last part provides predictions about what can be expected in the future.
Keywords
abortion; legal personhood; right to life; viability; Supreme Court of the United States
Hrčak ID:
308644
URI
Publication date:
12.10.2023.
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