It extended both civil and legal rights for Black citizens who were formerly enslaved. The right to reproductive autonomy is deeply grounded in the US Constitution and is about much more than Roe and the right to abortion.The Due Process Clause provides that no states shall deprive any "person" of "life, liberty or property" without due process of law. In 1973, the Supreme Court held that the Fifth Amendment's due process clause includes a right to privacy in Roe v. It perhaps is not generally appreciated that the restrictive criminal abortion laws in effect in a majority of States today are of relatively recent vintage. Legislatures began protecting the lives of human beings in the womb long before American independence. Its impact could become national if courts affirm statelevel laws that extend the application of the 14th Amendment to fetuses. Crawford, the Eighth Circuit held that there was no Eighth Amendment right for inmates to access abortions. Rights, and Fourteenth Amendment, 66 TEMPLE L. REV. The fourth section was held, in Perry v.