Digital Commons Network^™

Does Federal Law Ban Mailing Abortion Drugs? A Textual Analysis Of 18 U.S.C. § 1461, Peter Allevato

Pepperdine Law Review

As the regulation of abortion availability returned to the States, many have grappled with so-called trigger laws: dormant laws that were set to take effect to restrict or ensure access to abortion should constitutional protection be revoked. While the federal government has no true trigger law, it does have long-unenforced laws prohibiting the mailing of “[e]very article or thing designed, adapted, or intended for producing abortion.” 18 U.S.C. § 1461 is an old law, and it has not been enforced for at least fifty years. But the law’s potential effect on the growing practice of mail-distribution of chemical abortion pills …

Care And Pregnancy Loss, Chelsea Phillips

ABO: Interactive Journal for Women in the Arts, 1640-1830

In the wake of the Dobbs decision, new legislation across the U.S. has created ambiguity around the access to and legality of interventions for pregnancy loss in certain states. This essay situates our current legal landscape in opposition to that of the eighteenth-century, where care and preservation of the pregnant person were a guiding priority.

Can Superman Save The Supreme Court After Dobbs? Using Analogical Reasoning To Teach The American People The Superpower Of Stare Decisis, Brandon Stump

Cleveland State Law Review

In this Article, I propose that in this post-Dobbs America, if Americans are ever able to believe in, or even understand the magnitude of the Supreme Court’s power, practitioners, scholars, and educators should rely on the power of analogical reasoning, something attorneys are taught beginning their first weeks of law school. Using the power of analogy, we should take the simple story of Superman to explain the magnitude of the power held by the Supreme Court and the critical role that stare decisis must play in the Court’s decision-making. Perhaps if we explain legal principles and the judiciary by …

Dobbs And The Future Of Liberty And Equality, Kim Forde-Mazrui

Cleveland State Law Review

This lecture critiques Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization and assesses its implications for liberty and equality. Dobbs’ immediate effect was major disruption to abortion rights. In the longer term, by discarding fifty years of precedent and by basing constitutional rights exclusively on long-standing history and tradition, Dobbs jeopardizes liberty and equality rights that the Court has recognized in the late twentieth and early twenty-first centuries. Such modern liberty rights include contraception, interracial marriage, adult sexual intimacy and same-sex marriage. Modern equality rights include strong bars on discrimination based on race and sex, and moderate protections for LGBTQ+ status. …

The Anti-Constitutionality Of The Deeply Rooted Test In Dobbs V. Jackson, Reginald Oh

Cleveland State Law Review

The deeply rooted in history test used by Justice Alito in Dobbs v. Jackson to overturn Roe v. Wade is anti-constitutional. In Dobbs, Alito concluded that, because a majority of states in 1868 criminalized abortion, abortion is not deeply rooted in history, and is therefore not a fundamental liberty under the Fourteenth Amendment Due Process Clause. However, relying on state laws in 1868 to interpret constitutional text not only has no basis in the Constitution, it goes against the fundamental nature of the Constitution as an integrated whole. What I call the Integrated Constitution is based on Chief Justice John …

Retaining A Constitutional Right To Terminate A Pregnancy By Reinterpreting Pregnancy As An Implied Contract, Esra Coskun-Crabtree

Golden Gate University Law Review

This Comment considers the question of abortion as a fundamental right by reframing pregnancy as a ground for implied contract. The recent decision in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization, 142 S. Ct. 2228 (2022) rejected the Fourteenth Amendment’s Due Process Clause as a basis for asserting a fundamental right to abortion. However, other constitutional limits on state power may provide different avenues to such an assertion. Specifically, the Contracts Clause of Article I, Section 10 of the U.S. Constitution prohibits the states from impairing the freedom to contract. This Comment argues that the key issue in the abortion …

Legal And Health Risks Of Abortion Criminalization: State Policy Responses In The Immediate Aftermath Of Dobbs, Adrienne R. Ghorashi, Deanna Baumle

Journal of Law and Health

Major changes to the landscape of abortion law and service delivery have rapidly proliferated since the Supreme Court’s decision in Dobbs, in some cases overnight. Using legal epidemiology methods, the authors of this Article and a team of researchers created a legal dataset that identifies and tracks state laws impacting abortion access in the months immediately following the Dobbs ruling. This Article explores the dataset's findings, detailing changes in abortion laws including abortion bans and related penalties, interstate shield laws, and data privacy protections, from June 1, 2022 through January 1, 2023. While several states moved quickly to restrict …

Transcript: The Future Of Ivf Post Dobbs, Rebecca Feinberg

Journal of Law and Health

The following is a transcription from The Healthcare and Privacy Law Consequences Following Dobbs presented at Cleveland State University College of Law by The Journal of Law & Health on February 17, 2023. This transcript has been lightly edited for clarity and to reflect updates in the relevant law since the time of transcription.

A Miscarriage Of Justice: How Femtech Apps And Fog Data Evade Fourth Amendment Privacy Protections, Rachel Silver

Washington and Lee Journal of Civil Rights and Social Justice

After the fall of Roe v. Wade, states across the country have enacted extreme abortion bans. Anti-abortion states, emboldened by their new, unrestricted power to regulate women’s bodies, are only broadening the scope of abortion prosecutions. And modern technology provides law enforcement with unprecedented access to women’s most intimate information, including, for example, their menstrual cycle, weight, body temperature, sexual activity, mood, medications, and pregnancy details. Fourth Amendment law fails to protect this sensitive information stored on femtech apps from government searches. In a largely unregulated private market, femtech apps sell health and location data to third parties like Fog …

Emergency Room To The Courtroom: Providing Abortion Care Under Emtala And State Abortion Bans, Natasha Rappazzo

Dickinson Law Review (2017-Present)

After the Supreme Court eliminated the constitutional right to abortion in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization, states began to broadly criminalize abortion. Abortion is criminalized and restricted even in situations that constitute an emergency medical condition under the Emergency Medical Treatment and Labor Act (“EMTALA”). State abortion bans with limited medical exceptions conflict with EMTALA’s protections for emergency screening and stabilization. Legal challenges to the scope of EMTALA show a growing divide and uncertainty on emergency abortion care in the United States. This Comment will discuss why physicians cannot confidently provide quality and competent abortion care without the …

Relationship Between Plasma Fluoride Levels, Glutathione Peroxidase Activity, Hemoglobin, And Abortion In Rural And Urban Pregnant Women From Settat (Morocco), Lalla Asmaa Katir Masnaoui, Abdellatif Rahim, Habiba Bouchab, Bouchra El Amiri, Boubker Nasser, Essamadi Abdel Khalid

Makara Journal of Health Research

Background: This study aimed to investigate the relationship between plasma fluoride and hemoglobin levels, glutathione peroxidase (GPx) activity, and abortion among rural and urban pregnant women from Settat province (Morocco).

Methods: Blood samples were collected from rural pregnant women who had not undergone abortion (N = 224), rural pregnant women who had an abortion (N = 38), urban pregnant women who had not undergone abortion (N = 163), and urban pregnant women who had an abortion (N = 14).

Results: The highest (p < 0.01) plasma fluoride levels and the lowest (p < 0.01) GPx activity were observed in rural pregnant women. In all participants, plasma fluoride levels were significantly higher (p < 0.001), and the GPx activity was significantly (p < 0.001) lower in pregnant women who had an abortion compared with those who did not undergo such process. No significant difference was observed between the hemoglobin levels of all participants. Furthermore, abortion was positively correlated with plasma fluoride levels (p < 0.001) and negatively correlated with GPx activity (p < 0.001) in rural participants.

Conclusions: Rural pregnant women had higher plasma …

How Many Trans People Get Abortions? An Introduction To Critical Data Studies, Derek P. Siegel

Feminist Pedagogy

As abortion restrictions escalate, scholars and activists have struggled to incorporate transgender individuals into their organizing efforts. On one hand, most people recognize that not everyone who needs an abortion identifies as a woman. On the other hand, many are reluctant to abandon or complicate the rallying cry of abortion as a "woman's issue." Caught at a perceived crossroad, stakeholders wonder, "how many transgender people actually get abortions?" in the hopes that this number might guide their social movement strategies. In this assignment, students will use the concept of critical data studies to examine the politics of how we collect …

Serving Only To Oppress: An Intersectional And Critical Race Analysis Of Constitutional Originalism Inflicting Harm, Ethan Dawson

Indiana Journal of Law and Social Equality

“[T]imes can blind us to certain truths and later generations can see that laws once thought necessary and proper in fact serve only to oppress.” - Justice Anthony Kennedy, Lawrence v. Texas (2003)

This Note will first focus on a historical analysis of originalist constitutional interpretation, drawing attention to initial disparities in the Constitution incompatible with our current social context. It will discuss modern originalism as a method of perpetuating systemic shortcomings, drawing specific attention to originalist interpretation as a method of oppression against white women and people of color, specifically Black women. In analyzing the harm originalism does to …

The Independent Existence: A Look At Florida's Wrongful Death Statute In The Wake Of Dobbs And Changing State Abortion Laws., Katherine Bolliger

Child and Family Law Journal

Following the Supreme Court’s overturning of the federally mandated fundamental right to abortion founded in Roe¹ and Casey,² the decision of whether a woman may terminate a pregnancy has returned to the states with the current Court’s implementation of Dobbs v. Jackson Woman’s Health.³ In Florida, the state government decided to reduce the gestational age for termination to fifteen weeks in July 2022, and further reduced the gestational age to six weeks in April 2023 provided that the Florida Supreme Court upholds the fifteen week ban.⁴ This note operates under the fifteen week standard …

When Life Begins: A Case Study Of The Unitarian Universalism Faith And Its Potential To Combat Anti-Abortion Legislation, Jennifer O'Rourke

University of Cincinnati Law Review

No abstract provided.

“A Solemn Mockery”: Why Texas’S Senate Bill 8 Cannot Be Legitimized Through Comparisons To Qui Tam And Environmental Protection Statutes, Laura Blockman

University of Miami Law Review

On September 1, 2021, the Texas Legislature enacted the Texas Heartbeat Act, an anti-abortion statute popularly known as Senate Bill 8 (“S.B. 8”). Although many states passed anti-abortion legislation in 2021, S.B. 8 received national attention due to the law’s unusual enforcement mechanism: S.B. 8 empowers private citizens, not state actors, to sue individuals who perform or aid in the performance of an abortion after a fetal heartbeat is detected.

Unsurprisingly, the authors of S.B. 8 received extreme back- lash from the public, and many academics and legal scholars viewed the law’s private enforcement mechanism as an effort to evade …

Abortion, Buddhism, And The Middle Way: What A Buddhist View Of Abortion In Japan Can Teach Us In The United States Following The Overturn Of Roe V. Wade, Anna Grace Kalvelage

Say Something Theological: The Student Journal of Theological Studies

This paper takes up the question of whether there is a “middle way” approach in addressing the issue of abortion, particularly in light of the overturning of Roe v. Wade in the United States. It explores this question through examining how schools of Buddhism have addressed the issue of abortion in Japan, especially considering Japan’s unique history with abortion issues and the mizuko kuyo rituals, and what initially appears to be a gap in theory and practice when it comes to Buddhism and abortion. It further explores how some of the central tenets of Buddhism including karma, rebirth, and compassion …

Recurrent Pregnancy Loss - A Life Changing Condition For Women, Denisa Oana Balalau, Fernanda-Ecaterina Augustin, Delia-Maria Bogheanu, Alin-Gabriel Negulescu, Romina-Marina Sima, Anca Silvia Dumitriu, Stana Paunica, Liana Ples

Journal of Mind and Medical Sciences

Recurrent pregnancy loss (RPL) is estimated to occur in 2.5% of women trying to conceive. Definition of RPL varies depending on used guideline. In Europe, RPL is defined as two or more lost pregnancies before 24 weeks’ gestation. Although many factors have been associated with a higher risk of recurrent miscarriage, the aetiology is unknown in about half of cases. Several factors have been related to recurrent pregnancy loss, such as: environmental, behavioral, genetic, endocrine, metabolic, autoimmune, anatomic, thrombophilia and male factor. Given the multitude of etiopathogenic factors, RPL frequently requires an interdisciplinary approach for diagnosis and treatment. By its …

One Step Forward, Three Steps Back, Laura Montes

Proceedings of GREAT Day

Access to comprehensive and equitable sexual and reproductive health care is an ever-growing subject of discussion, especially in countries such as the U.S. where this right is constantly threatened by factors including, but not limited to, social, political, and economic status. Studies show that comprehensive sex education and services, such as contraception, STD prevention and treatment, pregnancy care, including abortion, encourage healthy adolescent development and have well-documented positive effects on societies world-wide. Unfortunately, too many people in the U.S. encounter unnecessary barriers to the sexual health information and services they need to be healthy and make safe decisions regarding their …

Rural Appalachian Women Will Suffer Disproportionately If Attempts To Further Restrict Emergency Contraception Are Successful, Amie M. Ashcraft, Sarah Dotson, Sara Farjo, Courtney S. Pilkerton, Pamela J. Murray

Journal of Appalachian Health

The removal of federal abortion protection has incited fear that restrictions on contraception may be next. Many states now imposing abortion restrictions and bans are in the South and Appalachian Regions of the U.S., where rates of unplanned pregnancy and poor health outcomes are already disproportionately high. Numerous studies have documented variable access to levonorgestrel EC (LNG EC) in community pharmacies, with particularly low rates of access at independent pharmacies that are more likely to be located in rural communities than chain pharmacies. Since the overturn of Roe v. Wade, some large chain pharmacies and online retailers are restricting …

Documentary Review: The Janes (2022), Katelyn M. Campbell

Feminist Pedagogy

No abstract provided.

Teaching Abortion As A Historical Construct: The Case Of Early Twentieth-Century Brazil And Beyond, Cassia Roth

Feminist Pedagogy

Using open-access primary sources available online, this activity teaches abortion as an unstable category through a specific case study, early twentieth-century Brazil. The one-week module, although specific to one geographic region and chronological period, can serve as a lesson plan for undergraduate history courses, for disciplines that use genealogy methods, and for interdisciplinary courses. The lesson plan helps undergraduates think critically about what we think we know about abortion, and how our current understandings are not fixed but rather contingent on the society in which we live and on who is practicing abortion. Changing understandings of what constitutes an abortion …

Mapping Abortion Access: Teaching About Abortion Through Geography, Molly Broscoe, Elaina Johns-Wolfe, Michelle L. Mcgowan

Feminist Pedagogy

No abstract provided.

Combatting Abortion Misinformation And Disinformation In Medical Education, Jaya Prakash, Deborah Bartz

Feminist Pedagogy

Abstract Introduction: Although abortion has historically been federally legal, functional access to abortion care has been thwarted by inflammatory political discourse. Abortion misinformation and disinformation have been deliberately intertwined into political agendas and ideologies, widening the gap between the lay public’s perception of and patients’ lived experience with abortion care. The politicization of abortion care has adverse effects on its provision and training along lines of inequity and marginalization established by preexisting systems of oppression and structural violence. Critical feminist pedagogy—an examination of class, gender, and sexuality on patriarchal misrepresentations of abortion information—can guide medical students to recognize and combat …

“How Did I Not Know Any Of This?” Teaching Reproductive Justice In An Abortion Desert, Lena R. Hann

Feminist Pedagogy

Reproductive justice is often used interchangeably with reproductive rights and reproductive health, overshadowing the importance of each movement’s contributions to understanding bodily autonomy. I am a former abortion care worker, now faculty at a Lutheran liberal arts college in an abortion desert. Antiabortion events on campus motivated students to request evidence-based education about reproductive issues, leading me to develop an immersive reproductive justice course. Reproductive justice is a framework that analyzes how systems of power prevent equitable access to and enjoyment of rights and health. The course examined how multifaceted oppressions shape reproductive self-determination and included content about abortion, adoption, …

Feminist Public Health As Abortion Pedagogy: Building Space For Reluctant Students, Chris Barcelos

Feminist Pedagogy

No abstract provided.

Death After Dobbs: Addressing The Viability Of Capital Punishment For Abortion, Melanie Kalmanson

William & Mary Journal of Race, Gender, and Social Justice

Pre-Dobbs legislative efforts and states’ reactions in the immediate aftermath of Dobbs indicate the post-Dobbs reality that deeply conservative states will seek to criminalize abortion and impose extremely harsh sentences for such crimes, up to and including death. This Article addresses that reality. Initially, this Article illustrates that abortion and capital punishment are like opposite sides of the same coin, and it is a handful of states leading the counter majoritarian efforts on both topics. After outlining the position of each state in the nation that retains capital punishment on capital sentencing and abortion, the Article identifies the …

The Dobbs Effect On West Virginia, Anne Marie Lofaso, Cameron Kiner

West Virginia Law Review

Humans have practiced birth control, including abortion, for thousands of years. Pregnant individuals have sought abortions for many reasons even though the abortion procedure itself has often been dangerous to the pregnant person’s life. Moreover, a stable consensus concerning the debate about when life begins and other questions surrounding abortion has rarely if ever been attained. Notwithstanding the numerous questions raised by this indisputably controversial subject, this article is quite limited in scope. In Section I, we review the development and retrenchment of an individual’s right to terminate their pregnancy starting on January 22, 1973, the day that the United …

The Future Of Roe And The Gender Pay Gap: An Empirical Assessment, Itay Ravid, Jonathan Zandberg

Indiana Law Journal

In Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization, the Supreme Court upheld a Mississippi law that prohibits nearly all abortions after the fifteenth week of pregnancy and overruled the holding in Roe v. Wade. Among the many arguments raised in Dobbs in an attempt to overturn Roe, the State of Mississippi argued that due to “the march of progress” in women’s role in society, abortion rights are no longer necessary for women to participate equally in economic life. It has also been argued that there is no empirical support to the relationship between abortion rights and women’s economic success in society. …

Abortion Rights And Federalism: Some Lessons From The Nineteenth Century United States, Kate Masur

ConLawNOW

The Dobbs decision, which gives states complete control over abortion laws, has unleashed conflicts that resemble the battles that arose when enslaved people fled slave states for free states, and enslavers, in turn, mobilized state and federal power to get them back. The Supreme Court’s decision in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization has prompted frequent allusions to slavery and the antebellum United States. The history of those struggles reminds us of the corrosive impact of interstate conflict and of the importance of federal protections for freedom and individual rights. The history of the United States in the nineteenth century …