A women’s reproductive rights or abortion decisions are complex and riddled with moral considerations. It is for that reason that women must be permitted to make the decision themselves. Women need the freedom to make reproductive decisions not merely to vindicate a right to be left alone, but often to strengthen their ties to others: to plan responsibly and have a family for which they can provide, to pursue professional and work commitments. It is the anti-choice position that drains the abortion decision of its moral complexity by insisting that it is always wrong. It is amidst this debacle that this research embarked on a judicial discourse comprises of case law in several jurisdictions to explicate on the notion of a privacy jurisprudence in order to teach and learn the wider community. A privacy jurisprudence, as adumbrated in this study, engendered certain fundamental constitutional guarantees against governmental control or state regulations which aim to invade the area of protected freedoms, such as abortion decisions by women and the use of contraceptives. In American state interference has been detested because it wanted to foil women’s right to privacy, whereas in South Africa, state interference is welcomed in the sense that the state must avail resources in order for women to exercise her right to freedom of decision. Botswana, as at recent encounter an inertia with regard to legal literature on a women’s reproductive rights and even a dearth of research in the medical arena on the issue. It is suggested that Botswana follow in the footsteps of South Africa and disentangles herself from her zealous patriarchal stand and elevate women so that the latter can be free to exercise her right to privacy in abortion decision or reproductive rights. The discourse towards a privacy jurisprudence enjoys elaborative discussion in the study and evoke some pointers for jurisdictions all over the globe to take recognition.
Keywords: privacy jurisprudence, abortion, reproductive rights, contraceptives, fetus, women.