The 13th Amendment reads: “Neither slavery nor involuntary servitude, except as a punishment for crime whereof the party shall have been duly convicted, shall (not) exist within the United States, or any place subject to their jurisdiction.” Servitude means: “the state of being a slave or completely subject to someone more powerful.” Government is certainly more powerful than a pregnant woman so the 13th Amendment eliminates government from forcing a woman or enacting laws that block an abortion or forces a woman to complete a pregnancy. A further question is: “can someone preform an abortion to end a claim to involuntary servitude?” That answer seems to be that anyone has a right and perhaps a duty to take action to stop involuntary servitude and government has nothing to say about that action… It would seem…
In addition the revelant part of the 14th Amendment, that government shall neither make or enforce any law that deprives any person liberty seems to prevent government from encroaching on the liberty of a pregnant woman to terminate a pregnancy. …. It would seem… .
Then tere are the numerous questions about the legal status of a fetus which changes a lot during a pregnancy. A fetus certainly obtains a bundle of Rights at some point during a pregnancy. A difficult question is when does a fetus obtain personhood. Difficult because a fetus would seem to have no right at all to the body of a woman and such a right would seem necessary to give government jurisdiction over the body of a woman to enable a fetus to aquire her body as a Right. The major difficulties appear even larger during the very late stage of a pregnancy. More work is required to resolve these issues especially regarding the Right of a woman to every part and function of her body.
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