Sujith Nair, LL.B., Kishinchand Chellaram Law College, Mumbai
ABSTRACT
The right to abortion has always been one of the most controversial legal issues in any jurisdiction. It is a question that invites commentary from a very wide range of disciplines, ranging from philosophy and religion to political thought and public policy. What has been more factious is the debate about whether a court has any authority to weigh in on this issue in the absence of an explicit constitutional or statutory provision regarding the same. This is exactly what happened in 1973, when the Supreme Court of the United States declared abortion a federal right guaranteed under the Constitution. The ensuing question, and the central legal issue for our consideration, is not whether abortion should be permitted or prohibited, or what factors should be considered while balancing the interests of the woman, the baby, and the State, but rather how a constitutional text is interpreted and the role of the judiciary in such partisan matters. In this note, I have tried to trace the reasoning of the U.S. Supreme Court in its 3 landmark cases on abortion, which has finally culminated in the desolation of any federally guaranteed right to abortion and has given the authority to regulate abortion to the individual states.
