The Constitution of the War on Abortion

If the Constitution has been largely neglected over the past half century when it comes to our punitive drug laws (a key argument in David Pozen’s The Constitution of the War on Drugs), during that same period the Constitution has been at the center of debates about abortion and reproductive freedom. Indeed, the success of efforts to secure constitutional protections for some aspects of intimate life, including the rights to contraception and abortion, stands in stark contrast to the far more limited success of constitutional arguments against drug laws. As Pozen writes, “It would be a mistake … to give up on the Constitution altogether.” In the context of fighting both punitive drug policy and punitive abortion policy, the human stakes demand the use of every possible tool.