| Abstrakt: |
This article examines the latest trends in the US Supreme Court's jurisprudence on the right to artificial termination of pregnancy (abortion). It is stated that the right to abortion is not an integral part of the text of the US Constitution - it was not provided for in the original text, nor in the Bill of Rights, nor in subsequent amendments. However, the regulation of the right to abortion has been the subject of litigation and a number of decisions of the US Supreme Court. The issue is not only legal, but also political - in particular, the attitude to the regulation of the right to abortion, the question of whether it should be resolved at the federal level or at the level of individual states, what discretion should be given to the states, etc. This issue is a part of the debate, a public discussion, in almost every US election. Main decisions of the US Supreme Court in this area are reviewed, in particular Roe v. Wade, Dobbs v. Jackson Women's Health Organization, Alliance for Hippocratic Medicine v. FDA. It is concluded that the right to abortion in the United States is not enshrined in the Constitution, and this creates certain problems, since it allows some theorists and practitioners to appeal to the fact that the absence of such constitutional enshrinement indicates an unwillingness to grant this right the status of a fundamental right protected by the Constitution. It is argued that this argument should be disagreed with, since in the US legal tradition a significant number of rights are somehow derived from the text of the Constitution in judicial practice, and therefore the understanding of the right to abortion as such which is grounded in the Fourteenth Amendment to the US Constitution is fully justified. It is pointed out that recent trends, in particular, the cases which have been heard or are pending in 2022-2024, indicate that the stability of legal regulation of the right to abortion in the United States has been shaken. Almost 50 years of Roe v. Wade precedent were not enough to convince some in the community that the right to abortion is truly firmly rooted in American history and tradition. By depriving it of constitutional protection, it allowed for considerable discretion to be given to the states, which could impose various types of regulation, up to and including a complete ban. Food and Drug Administration v. Alliance for Hippocratic Medicine further extended the «attack» on this right, which may also affect the interests of a significant number of women in the United States. To summarize, the recent trends are more political than legal, caused rather by ideological motives, as there were not enough convincing arguments to abandon the previous practice established by Roe v Wade. Enshrining the right to abortion at the level of the US Constitution (through an amendment) could help, but seems unrealistic given the polarization of society. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR] |
