> It's meant to protect liberties that were traditionally respected at the time of its ratification, but were not all necessarily written down. Abortion was not one of those -- in fact it was flatly illegal (almost?) every single state at the time, and continued so into the 20th century.
The text I emphasized above is false.
After independence, the US adopted English common law, which "hazily" prohibited abortion after "quickening" (fetal movements usually first felt around 15-20 weeks' gestation), but lacked an actual written statute banning this. The first anti-abortion laws were introduced in Connecticut in 1821 (precipitated by a womanizing preacher who got one of his many young female fans pregnant, insisted she abort the fetus before marrying him because it'd damage his reputation, tried and failed medicine and then "mechanical" means, caused stillbirth, all without technically breaking any law): https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abortion_in_the_United_States#...
The text I emphasized above is false.
After independence, the US adopted English common law, which "hazily" prohibited abortion after "quickening" (fetal movements usually first felt around 15-20 weeks' gestation), but lacked an actual written statute banning this. The first anti-abortion laws were introduced in Connecticut in 1821 (precipitated by a womanizing preacher who got one of his many young female fans pregnant, insisted she abort the fetus before marrying him because it'd damage his reputation, tried and failed medicine and then "mechanical" means, caused stillbirth, all without technically breaking any law): https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abortion_in_the_United_States#...
The Ninth Amendment was ratified in 1791: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ninth_Amendment_to_the_United_...