The Right To Terminate Pregnancy: Balancing The Liberty Of The Mother Against The Life Of The Unborn

Abstract

The concept of personal liberty has experienced significant growth, leading to the recognition that the right to privacy is encompassed within it. The right to privacy encompasses various aspects, such as the right to choose whether or not to conceive or bear a child, the right to decide whether or not to become a parent, the right to use or abstain from using contraceptives, the right to undergo or refrain from sterilisation, the right to engage in sexual activity without the burden of unwanted parenthood, and the right to have a child through artificial insemination without the necessity of engaging in sexual intercourse. The conservative perspective has advocated for the inclusion of the right to terminate pregnancy, commonly known as abortion, as a means to prevent the continuation of parenthood or motherhood. Assuming that the Right to Personal Liberty encompasses a woman's entitlement to terminate her pregnancy, the inquiry I aim to raise is to the potential impact of exercising this right on the Right to Life of the unborn child. The response to this inquiry would inherently rely on the responses to two specific inquiries: (1) the determination of whether an unborn child qualifies as a person as defined by the Life/Liberty Clause in Article 21, and (2) the determination of whether it possesses life.