Fourteenth Amendment to the U.S.

¶ … Fourteenth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution has powerful implications for basic rights of Americans, including justice and a fair trial. Although the 14th is best known in the last thirty years or so as the reason why abortions in the U.S. are legal (right to privacy), it is a major force for justice and national security. Meanwhile, a quick look at that decision (Roe v. Wade) offers an explanation to the 14th Amendment.

In the years prior to Roe v. Wade, abortion was illegal, but thousands of abortions were conducted every year, and many deaths were attributed to those "back room" abortions. The Abortion Law Homepage explains that abortion law comes from two basic governmental sources; the legislatures of states and the Supreme Court of the United States. Most states made abortion a criminal offence, up until 1973, when the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that the 14th Amendment "provided a fundamental right for women to obtain abortions." The 14th Amendment to the Constitution led to the Court's decisions in the 1960s and 1970s, which established that a woman had a "right to privacy" in cases of contraception.

Meanwhile, on a rights basis, the 14th prohibits any state from depriving any person of "…life, liberty, or property, without due process of law…" which means you cannot be thrown in jail without being charged or have your house searched without a warrant. The 14th also lays down the rules as to how the U.S. Congress is made up, it points out that no one can be elected to national office if they have been found guilty of treason. The 14th also deals with the legal rights of slaves after the Civil War; those "being 21 years of age, and citizens of the United States," and male, whall not have their right to vote "abridged, except for participation in rebellion, or other crime…"