Zeev's Turnips Talk Politics (ZTTP)

[TheProphet]

Actually, not that I am anti-choice, but the first amendment has two components to it: the first, the so-called "establishment clause," prohibits government from establishing religion and in that sense prohibits government from favoring or advocating religion over non-religion or one religion over another; the second component is the so-called "free exercise" clause, which requires that government be tolerant of religion and not adversely impact individuals for their religious practices, except where the practices impact on others.

Technically, the term "separation of church and state" has been most commonly applied to the establishment clause component of the first amendment. The fact that some religions hold that life commences later would not typically be a church and state issue, but rather would be more a question of privacy rights, the foundation on which Roe v. Wade was decided. The privacy rights are not expressly identified in the constitution, but have been implied by the provisions of the 4th, 5th, and 14th amendments.