The Court explained that the right to privacy was inherent in the First, Third, Fourth, Fifth, and Ninth Amendments. The Bill of Rights created “zones of privacy” into which the government could not intrude. “The First Amendment has a penumbra where privacy is protected from governmental intrusion…while it is not expressly included in the First Amendment its existence is necessary in making the express guarantees fully meaningful.” The Court continued, “The Third Amendment in its prohibition against the quartering of soldiers ‘in any house’ in time of peace without the consent of the owner is another facet of that privacy. The Fourth Amendment explicitly affirms the “right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures.” The Fifth Amendment in its Self-Incrimination Clause enables the citizen to create a zone of privacy which government may not force him to surrender to his detriment. The Ninth Amendment provides: ‘The enumeration in the Constitution, of certain rights, shall not be construed to deny or disparage others retained by the people.’” Finally, the Court concluded that privacy within marriage was a personal zone off limits to the government. “Would we allow the police to search the sacred precincts of marital bedrooms for telltale signs of the use of contraceptives? The very idea is repulsive to the notions of privacy surrounding the marriage relationship. We deal with a right of privacy older than the Bill of Rights…”
Griswold v Connecticut
So, if a person's marriage and the privacy of what goes on in that marriage (in reference to birth control) is off limits to the government.....wouldn't medical procedures such as abortion also be off limits to the government? After all a person's decision in reference to their own body is far more sacred than decision inside a marriage.
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