The University of New Hampshire Law Review
Abstract
The current pandemic is intensifying restrictions on a wide range of fundamental rights which form a key pillar of the rule of law, it includes access to reproductive rights. Some states have moved forward with their ideological quest of control and infringement of constitutional rights in order to ban or limit abortion what is a fundamental attack on constitutional rights and in particular those associated with the Thirteenth Amendment. These restrictions on abortion resulting from the proclamation of a state of emergency follow the path already taken by certain states to reinforce their coercive measures. They raise major legal and political questions with regard to reproductive rights and individual freedom. As the state continues to impose and exercise strong and unequal constraints on women's bodies through anti-abortion laws and pandemic restrictions through an instrumentalization of the health crisis, it establishes a system of involuntary servitude and subordination for procreation which breaches the 13th Amendment.