Prospective Abolition of Abortion: Abortion and the Constitution in 2047

Abstract:     
What if those who fashioned the Missouri Compromise of 1820, instead of drawing a geographical line in the sand, had drawn a 'time'-line instead, prohibiting slavery at a then-seemingly-distant date of 1860, forty long years into the future? Might the events of 1860 (and thereafter) played out much differently? Is it possible slavery would have been abolished sooner, and without the loss of 600,000 lives in the Civil War?

This short essay asks the question of whether abortion might be prohibited by constitutional amendment, effective some forty years in the future. Might it be possible to reach consensus that an absolute, unrestricted right to abortion should not exist forever?

Number of Pages in PDF File: 6

Keywords: Constitutional law, abortion, reproductive rights, constitution

Accepted Paper Series