Arguing that restrictive state abortion law DO NOT violate the right to privacy set in ROE v. WADE - Essay Example

The right of privacy is broad enough to encompass a woman’s decision on whether to terminate pregnancy or not. According to UN there are set committees created to ensure governments’’ compliance with their treaty obligations. The committee on the elimination of discrimination against women (CEDW) states that it is the duty of states parties to ‘respect, protect and fulfill women’s right to health care. The committee also raised concerns to unsafe abortion particularly in cases of rape.

Such incidence also has raised the mortality rates in the world. When the case of Roe v. Wade was decided in January 1973, abortion except to save a woman’s life was banned in nearly two thirds of the state (Payment, 2004). The banned made women’s organizations to fight for the right to access safe and legal abortion, and surprisingly international human rights law support their claims. Since 1973, in the decision of Roe v. Wade by the Supreme Court, states have constructed a lattice work of abortion law, codifying, regulating and limiting whether, when and under what circumstances should a woman abort.

The denial of a pregnant woman’s right to make an independent decision regarding abortion violates or poses a threat to a wide range of human rights. The CEDAW committee has consistently criticized restrictive abortion laws that endanger a woman’s life. The UN committees suggested that women have a right to decide independently in all matters related to reproduction, including the issue of abortion. Roe a single woman in Texas sought a declaratory judgment that the Texas criminal abortion statutes were unconstitutional on their face, and an injunction restraining the defendant from enforcing the statute.

She alleged that she was unmarried and pregnant and she wished to terminate her pregnancy by abortion. The abortion was to be performed by a competent