Abstract
Concern about individual rights and the desire to protect them has been part of our nation since its founding, and continues to be so today. The Ninth Amendment was created to assuage the Framers’ concerns that enumerating some rights in the Bill of Rights would leave unenumerated rights unrecognized and unprotected, affirming that those rights are not disparaged or denied by their lack of textual support. The Ninth Amendment has appeared infrequently in our jurisprudence, and Courts initially construed it rather narrowly. But starting in the 1960s, the Ninth Amendment emerged as a powerful tool not just for recognizing unanticipated rights, but for protecting or expanding even enumerated rights. The right to privacy—encompassing the right to contraception and abortion—the right to preserve the integrity of your family, the right to vote, the right to own a firearm as an individual—all these rights have been asserted under and found to be supported by the Ninth Amendment. In its Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health decision overturning Roe, the Supreme Court found that there is no right to abortion because it is not in the Constitution. But the potential of the Ninth Amendment is such that reproductive choice need not be mentioned in the Constitution to be protected. Reproductive choice may rightfully be considered as part of a right to privacy, an unenumerated right that nevertheless has abundant precedent behind it. The Ninth Amendment, and its counterparts found in many state constitutions, has the power to protect not just reproductive choice, but all of our fundamental rights.
Recommended Citation
Layne Huff,
The Ninth Amendment: An Underutilized Protection for Reproductive Choice,
37 J.L. & Health
105
(2024)
available at https://engagedscholarship.csuohio.edu/jlh/vol37/iss2/6
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