Harry Blackmun Quotes (1908-1999)

“The states are not free, under the guise of protecting maternal health or potential life, to intimidate women into continuing pregnancies.”

“The Court's decisions recognizing a right of privacy also acknowledge that some state regulation in areas protected by that right is appropriate. As noted above, a State may properly assert important interests in safeguarding health, in maintaining medical standards, and in protecting potential life. At some point in pregnancy, these respective interests become sufficiently compelling to sustain regulation of the factors that govern the abortion decision. The privacy right involved, therefore, cannot be said to be absolute. In fact, it is not clear to us that the claim asserted by some amici that one has an unlimited right to do with one's body as one pleases bears a close relationship to the right of privacy previously articulated in the Court's decisions. The Court has refused to recognize an unlimited right of this kind in the past. Jacobson v. Massachusetts, 197 U.S. 11 (1905) (vaccination); Buck v. Bell, 274 U.S. 200 (1927) (sterilization). We, therefore, conclude that the right of personal privacy includes the abortion decision, but that this right is not unqualified, and must be considered against important state interests in regulation.”

“In this country the law in effect in all but a few States until mid-19th century was the pre-existing English common law . . . . It was not until after the War Between the States [1861-1865] that legislation began generally to replace the common law.”

“Should we spell out-although it would then necessarily be largely dictum-just what aspects are controllable by the State and to what extent?”