Q.1
In Roe v Wade, the US Supreme Court indicated the cutoff for election abortion to be upon or prior to fetal viability during the trimester of the pregnancy which is approximately sixteen weeks. Yes, this timeframe set by the court is seems certainly a logical decision since it ensures that a woman’s right to privacy and liberty to terminate her pregnancy in case where her life is not in danger.
Q.2
In Roe v Wade and the subsequent cases that followed its logic, the court made it clear that the right to abortion is not absolute and hence the state may have a legitimate interest in limiting this right. Some of the state interests that were held to be appropriate include the state’s interest in protecting life and health. On the other hand, state interests that were not appropriate include the interest of the state in interfering unreasonably and unjustifiably with a pregnant woman’s privacy or to make health decisions on her behalf.
Q. 3
Planned Parenthood v Case while upholding decision in Roe rejected its trimester framework and instead, proposed the “undue burden” standard for abortion regulation. That is, a State’s abortion regulation will only stand the Constitutional master test if it does not have the effect of imposing substantial obstacles or hurdles on a the ability of a pregnant woman to exercise her right to terminate her pregnancy. A state could also not prevent a pregnant woman from terminating pregnancy before viability but only after and only in situations where the woman’s health is in danger. Thus, what has been determined not to constitute undue burden is prevention of abortion in according to Henderson (2001) include permissible restrictions such as parent consent, provision of anti-abortion information and mandatory waiting periods (p. 1127).
Q.4
In Stenberg v Carhart, those proposing the D & X procedure over the use of D & E used the reasoning that it was a safer procedure than the D & E whose medical precision had not been determined. They also based their advocacy on the grounds that it would impose an undue burden on pregnant women when doctors fail to safely remove the fetus.
Q. 5
Under Roe v Wade and subsequent decisions, a state can legally allow elective abortion through the third semester. This is because the decision in Stenberg made it clear that abortion can be made at any time in a woman’s pregnancy period as long as it does not impose an undue burden on the pregnant woman. According to Berkowitz (2001), following Stenberg v Carhart (2000), “regulations which do more than create a mechanism for the state to exercise respect for the life of the unborn are, therefore, allowed provided they do not constitute a substantial obstacle to the woman's right to choose” (p. 344).
References
Berkowitz, J. F. (2001). Stenberg v Carhart: Women retain their right to choose. Journal of Criminal Law and Criminology Supreme Court Review, 91(2), 337-383.
Henderson, M. R. (2001). Stenbergv Carhart: Partial-birth abortion bans and the Supreme Court's rejection pf the methodical erasure of the right to abortion. North Carolina Law Review Journal, 79(4), 1127-1154.
