Abortion's Still Unanswered Questions (The Good Book) (Column‪)‬

For thoughtful persons uncorrupted by religious or political agendas, abortion remains a complex topic implicating tough legal, philosophical, and scientific questions. How should we characterize the fetus, for example--as part of the mother or as a separate human being? Which has superior rights? Is the "right to privacy" constitutionally defensible? If so, was the trimester system outlined in Roe v. Wade the most prudent approach to balancing the woman's right against the state's legitimate interests? Is abortion really about something else altogether? The jurisprudence of abortion is highlighted in Erwin Chemerinsky's wide-ranging liberal rallying cry, The Conservative Assault On the Constitution (Simon & Schuster 2010). Founding Dean of the law school at the University of California, Irvine, Chemerinsky admits the right of privacy was never expressed in the Constitution's text. Nor was it compelled by the Fourteenth Amendment's equal protection clause, for example, as was the landmark ruling in Brown v. Board of Education.