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We can speak of rights as "absolute" if they must be honored under all circumstances, or as prima facie if they can be overridden or infringed under some circumstances. Philosophers have found very different bases for both types of right:

Some have based rights on moral principles said to be evident to all reasonable people. This is a natural rights view. Utilitarian philosophers have sometimes thought of rights as a special set of rules justified because they promote the long-term good of most people. Some philosophers have deduced rights from the concept of a moral system or from various moral concepts.

It is important to understand that philosophers often distinguish between the right and the good. A theory of rights attempts to delineate what it is permissible for someone to do. But if we say that Jones has a right to do X, it does not follow that X is the best thing (or even one of the better things) for Jones to do. The relationship between the right and the good is both complex and controversial.

It is quite possible to argue that a woman has a moral right to abort her child and also believe that it is not the best thing for her to do. It is useful to keep this distinction in mind, especially when considering the arguments for liberal abortion laws (which are often phrased in terms of women's rights).