Thursday, November 26, 2009

Liberty equals Privacy and Privacy equals Abortion?

I am really confused about the meaning of the 14th Amendment and how it is being incorporated today.

The Supreme Court’s Roe v. Wade decision prevents states from outlawing abortion. The argument was that a woman’s right to an abortion falls within the right to privacy which is protected by the 14th Amendment. (where is privacy mentioned in the 14th amendment?)The decision gives a woman total autonomy over the pregnancy during the first trimester and defined different levels of state interest for the second and third trimesters. As a result, the laws of 46 states were affected by the Court's ruling. Prohibiting abortion is a violation of the 14th Amendment, according to the Court.

When I read the 14th Amendment I didn’t find any reference to abortion. The 14th Amendment, passed in 1868, was meant to protect freed slaves from persecution and unlawful imprisonment, and to make sure they enjoyed equality under the law.

In the Roe v. Wade case the court interpreted liberty to include a "right to privacy", and then they figured that if women have a right to privacy, then that must include the right to have an abortion, since it's their body and bearing or not bearing a child is a very private matter. Under the 14th Amendment’s “personal liberty”, women are given the right to receive an abortion. With this right, women are now able to enjoy, like men, the rights to fully use the powers of their minds and bodies.

It is not my intention to discuss whether abortion is right or wrong. Instead I want to discuss why the 14th amendment is applied to abortions but not prostitution? If the Constitution embraces a woman’s right to terminate her pregnancy because her body is a private matter then why is not a private matter for a woman to sell her body for money?

The way I interpret the Court's decision based on the 14th Amendment is that anything affecting a woman’s body is her choice, therefore prostitution laws are unconstitutional.
The anti-prostitution laws which are in effect are violating the rights of the prostitutes. They deny the prostitutes what the American Constitution allows them. Prostitution is the voluntary sale or rental of a labor service. People use their own bodies for their services, and have the absolute right to decide how those labor services should be used. As long as prostitution is voluntary, there is no justification for government interference. The Fourteenth Amendment of the American constitution states that all individuals have the right to life, liberty, and equality. Prostitution is therefore not a moral issue, it is a constitutional issue and should not be outlawed in 49 states.
If the 14th Amendment is about equality, why is it not being applied equally?

No comments:

Post a Comment