Struggle to End Abortion as Relating to Struggle for Citizenship Among Former Slaves and Women

The history of the United States has been a history of the struggle to attain personal freedom. The earliest settlers came to escape different forms of oppression in Europe. The American Revolution was fought to obtain freedom from ruling Mother England. And throughout our history, groups have fought their own battles to be considered free under the United States Constitution. One of these battles is even being fought now.

When the Constitution was written, only white male land-owners were considered citizens, so they were the only ones that were protected by the Constitution to its fullest extent. The struggle for suffrage for Blacks and for women was a time of major social change in America, and the achievements of the two different groups are reflected in the thirteenth through fifteenth amendments for freed slaves, and the nineteenth amendment for women.

Now that the Constitution does apply to every person born in or naturalized to the United States, the struggle begins to apply those same rights to the unborn, so that their lives and rights will be protected. An unborn child is not considered a citizen, and therefore does not have the protection of the Constitution, especially the line “life, liberty, and property.” A struggle has ensued since Roe v. Wade, the watershed case that legalized abortion for the nation, to have the Constitution implicitly or explicitly guarantee fetal rights. The nature of this struggle parallels the struggles of Blacks and of women, while naturally deviating from them as well. It is these struggles that defines the term ‘American.’