In the November 2024 election, a record-breaking 10 US states featured ballot measures that would enshrine abortion rights, and in some cases other reproductive rights, in the state constitution, and one state also featured an anti-abortion measure.
On , Florida's near-total abortion ban went into effect. The ban, which outlaws abortions after 6 weeks, was passed by the Florida Legislature and signed by Gov. DeSantis last year. The current ban replaced the state's 15-week abortion ban, which was approved more than two years ago.
On , Florida's near-total abortion ban went into effect. The ban, which outlaws abortions after 6 weeks, was passed by the Florida Legislature and signed by Gov. DeSantis last year. The current ban replaced the state's 15-week abortion ban, which was approved more than two years ago.
Protection of Unborn Children - 18 U.S. Code § 1841. Under federal law, harming an unborn child (in utero) during the commission of certain other crimes carries the same penalty as if you had committed the crime directly against the mother—and is charged as a separate offense. This law is embodied in Title 18 U.S.C.
The Supreme Court, however, beginning as early as 1923 and continuing through its recent decisions, has broadly read the "liberty" guarantee of the Fourteenth Amendment to guarantee a fairly broad right of privacy that has come to encompass decisions about child rearing, procreation, marriage, and termination of ...
The Fourteenth Amendment prohibits states from denying "the equal protection of the laws" to "any person." When the Amendment was adopted in 1868, the word "person" had a settled public meaning that included all human beings, including unborn children.
As an effect of the unanimity of the states in holding unborn children to be persons under criminal, tort, and property law, the text of the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment compels federal protection of unborn persons.
In 2018, the Supreme Court ruled that the fetus' only inherent constitutionally protected right is the right to be born, overturning a High Court ruling that a fetus additionally possessed the children's rights guaranteed by Article 42A of the Constitution.