Legal Positions of the Highest Courts in the Field of Ensuring and Protecting the Constitutional Right to Health and Reproductive Rights

Abstract

This article attempts to analyze the law enforcement practice in the field of ensuring and protecting the constitutional right to health and reproductive rights, other constitutional rights and freedoms and the principle of gender equality in the activities of the highest courts of a number of foreign countries. The unfavorable demographic situation and problems of deteriorating reproductive health are factors that induce states to consolidate reproductive rights as fundamental rights and freedoms guaranteed by the constitution. This is evidenced by the change in the positions of the constitutional courts in those countries where reproductive rights are not proclaimed in the constitution. At the same time, many states take the position of recognizing the right to life from the moment of conception, which often leads to the restriction of certain reproductive rights. In particular, the rights to abortion and contraception. In addition, in recent decades, close attention of the entire world community has been directed to the development of reproductive technologies. In connection with the high rates of scientific progress, the emergence of new methods of treating infertility, new disputes and problems arise not only in matters of ethics, morality and medicine, but also in the field of legal regulation. This analysis is of interest due to the limited number of cases of this category in the practice of Russian courts and so far the insignificant amount of experience of domestic legal practitioners, which would reveal the most important problems in the domestic regulation of the analyzed sphere of public relations.