There is no state jurisdiction inside the womb

Manhattan: Voicer William Cook ridicules the current kerfuffle about Roe v. Wade, concluding that allowing the voters of each state to decide abortion policy “is what our Constitution demands.” If that were true, the Supreme Court of the United States would not have granted certiorari re a Mississippi statute, neither a referendum nor constitutional amendment. The jesters on the present high court make much of the absence of “abortion” from the text of the Constitution; they fail to cite where “woman” appears in that document or to explain why the Fourteenth Amendment did not allow females full personhood or citizenship. That had to wait for more than another half-century (and its statutory accompaniment, the Equal Rights Amendment, is still waiting 100 years later).

While statistical data about abortions is a legitimate public health concern, those demographics can be de-identified. There is little reason for the state to know who chooses to have any medical procedure (including one that restores menstrual periodicity). Assuming, for the sake of argument, that the Constitution does not delegate to the federal government any power over abortion, then that power belongs to the states or the people. Control over one’s person is a natural right, it is not bestowed by social contract.

The surrender of that right in the instance of abortion is a gender-specific choice: Only those who have, had or genetically should have had a uterus should be allowed to decide (omitting the gynandrous to avoid complicating the issue). Congress should amend HIPAA penalties at lottery-level liability against any individual, entity or state outing a woman for choosing to have an abortion!