What Right to Privacy

Reflect: The fact that the Constitution does not have a specific clause or reference to a right to privacy has become a very contentious cultural, social, and political issue in the United States. The ability of the government to enter into the private lives of American citizens has clearly been restricted by provisions in the Fourth Amendment, yet the debate over certain privacy based rights such as contraception, abortion rights, and consensual sexual activity continues today. In particular, when discussing abortion, many immediately begin to debate a woman’s right to choose to have an abortion or not. At the heart of the issue constitutionally, is not whether a woman has the right to make this decision but whether she has the right to privacy under the Fourth Amendment.