Is a Fetus a U.S. Citizen? Do Abortion Laws Create In-Utero Citizens?

Recently, Alabama voters amended their Constitution. The law states that the “public policy of this state is to recognize and support the sanctity of unborn life and the rights of unborn children, including the right to life.”

As states enact total or virtual abortion bans, they appear to be opening some new— and unexpected— legal possibilities.

Take birthright citizenship. President Trump and other conservatives wants to end it. This idea stems from the 14^th Amendment which states: “All persons born or naturalized in the United States and subject to the jurisdiction thereof are citizens of the United States and of the State wherein they reside.”

The citizenship law is premised on the legal idea that a person’s life begins at birth—not at conception.

But if the legal view is that life begins at conception, then birthright citizenship should logically expand to in utero citizenship.

Here are some possible implications (you might think of others … feel free to add to the list):

A person conceived in the U.S. could not have his or her mother deported because that fetus would have a right to remain in the U.S. as an in-utero citizen.

The census should count pregnancies as people. Given the higher fertility of people of color in the U.S., this would benefit “blue states” for purposes of apportioning seats in the House of Representatives and electoral votes.

The fetus would have the same right to health care under Medicaid as a newborn child.

These ideas will strike many people as absurd. My point is that the law cannot cherry pick the starting point of life for purposes of a conservative agenda without running into serious contradictions when that premise plays to liberal policy preferences.