Roe standing on expectation of privacy seems to be a similarly poor analogy.
The real missing piece goes back to the same fear the framers had when enacting the Bill of Rights in the first place — namely that by enumerating some rights it would inadvertantly serve to exclude those unenumerated but equally inalienable rights, such as right to self-determination and ownership of one’s own body.
With respect to Roe v Wade, the expectation of privacy has already been established with your doctor. Since there are legitimate, non-trivial reasons for abortion, and that's a decision between a person and their doctor, the gov't can't ask why someone may need that abortion. Therefore, the gov't is unable to discern between reasons for an abortion, and therefore can't restrict them (up to a reasonable point, which was set non-arbitrarily around 24 weeks). You have a right to patient confidentiality. The gov't has no more of a say in whether you should have appendix surgery than whether you should have an abortion.
However, this doesn't establish a right to abortion. The justices clearly state that it is not a right by saying it's not covered under the 9th.
Thank you for that. Not to get too off topic, but I will need to read more about the reasoning behind the RvW decision.
It sounds to be threading one hell of a needle as a justification to keep government out of elective abortion. I mean, we have databases which track every narcotic prescription written which law enforcement (including the DEA) can access without a warrant.
It's really not a fine line. Narcotic dissemination is a major problem and there are justifiable reasons for tracking them, but I don't believe that tracking forces an individual to justify a decision between their doctor and themselves to the gov't. The justices did say there could be justifiable reasons limitations on abortions as well, just that it is very difficult to enumerate because politicians are not doctors.
Practically, while you can share your prescription medications with another person, abortions are not transferable.
The registry is not supposed to about who has a prescription, but rather, who has more than their legitimate share of prescriptions. It’s also supposed to be used to identify over-prescribing doctors.
Given that the framers were living in a society where that right was distinctly "alienable", and either were themselves or needed to appease interests that insisted that said right be alienable, I'm not sure they considered that one.
The real missing piece goes back to the same fear the framers had when enacting the Bill of Rights in the first place — namely that by enumerating some rights it would inadvertantly serve to exclude those unenumerated but equally inalienable rights, such as right to self-determination and ownership of one’s own body.