Guest Opinion: How outlawing abortion violates the 13th Amendment

What is slavery?

The shortest possible definition I can come up with is "involuntary servitude."

The slave is forced — not asked, not a volunteer — forced — to serve another, against his (her) will, is forbidden from leaving that service and is subject to recapture and punishment in the event the slave should attempt to escape.

The 13th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution states as follows:

“Neither slavery nor involuntary servitude, except as punishment for crime whereof the party shall have been duly convicted, shall exist within the United States, or any place subject to their jurisdiction.”

This Constitutional prohibition may have been controversial in 1865, when it was first ratified, but it is not controversial today. It is part of the bedrock of our 21st century democracy.

Let’s shift gears now and think about pregnancy, and carrying that pregnancy to term, delivering a baby. It’s an act of service from a woman to her offspring, entered into willfully and voluntarily, despite the short-term hazards to her personal health and long-term obligations of motherhood, potential career limitations, educational interruptions, etc. — entered into voluntarily. Except, when it’s not. When a pregnancy is not wanted, how can continuing that pregnancy by force of law be construed as anything other than “involuntary servitude?” The woman becomes a slave to her fetus.

And lest the subtlety of that argument be lost on the reader, that means that the state (and all 50 states) is enjoined from forbidding abortion based on the involuntary servitude prohibition in the 13th Amendment. A woman may choose to serve the fetus she carries because she wants a child, or because her religion mandates it, but she cannot be forced to do so against her will by either state or federal law.

Freedom of choice is essential to equality between men and women. Free exercise of your religion does not authorize you to impose the guidance or dictates of your religion on anyone else.

Thus our Constitution provides two concrete precedents for Roe v Wade. The first amendment’s separation of church and state, and the thirteenth amendment’s prohibition of involuntary servitude.

Robert A Woodruff lives in Buckingham.

This article originally appeared on Bucks County Courier Times: Guest Opinion: How outlawing abortion violates the 13th Amendment