Why was abortion legal when the United States was founded?
<p>The US supreme court recently ruled to <a href="https://www.supremecourt.gov/opinions/21pdf/19-1392_6j37.pdf" rel="nofollow noreferrer">overturn Roe vs. Wade</a>. Part of the decision was based on abortion laws when the 14th Amendment was ratified. While I understand that cherry picking the 14th Amendment's ratification might confront an <a href="https://www.uclalawreview.org/the-equality-argument-for-abortion-rights/" rel="nofollow noreferrer">equal protection challenge</a>, it doesn't deal with <a href="https://www.law.cornell.edu/supremecourt/text/410/113" rel="nofollow noreferrer">the fundamental finding in Roe</a>. I.e. that determining a) a fetus was present and b) that the fetus died of non-natural causes would require an unreasonable search by the government in violation of an individual's 4th amendment rights. <a href="https://www.archives.gov/publications/prologue/2016/winter/poh-bill-of-rights" rel="nofollow noreferrer">The first 10 amendments finished ratifying in 1791</a> when <a href="https://eastsidegynecology.com/blog/us-abortion-history-timeline/" rel="nofollow noreferrer">there were no abortion laws in the US</a>. So, if the court's originalists base their opinion on what those authors intended, why do they believe were there no laws against abortion when the bill of rights was ratified?</p>

<h2>Of course there were laws on abortions in 1791</h2>
<p>There just weren’t any statutes because this was handled by the common law. Under that, abortions were <a href="https://archive.org/details/whenabortionwasc00reag_0/page/n7/mode/2up" rel="nofollow noreferrer">legal</a> until quickening (when the mother first feels the foetus moving) and murder after that. Quickening usually takes place around 15-17 weeks. The fact that the Mississippi law makes 15 weeks the cutoff is probably not coincidental.</p>

human-rights abortion