"No Member of this Court has ever questioned the holding in Roe, 410 U.S. at 410 U. S. 156-159, that a fetus is not a "person" within the meaning of the Fourteenth Amendment. Even the dissenters in Roe implicitly endorsed that holding by arguing that state legislatures should decide whether to prohibit or to authorize abortions. See id. at 410 U. S. 177 (REHNQUIST, J., dissenting) (arguing that the Fourteenth Amendment did not "withdraw from the States the power to legislate with respect to this matter"); Doe v. Bolton, 410 U. S. 179, 410 U. S. 222 (1973) (WHITE, J., dissenting jointly in Doe and Roe). By characterizing the basic question as "a political issue," see ante at 492 U. S. 535 (concurring in part and concurring in judgment), JUSTICE SCALIA likewise implicitly accepts this holding."