Civil Rights and Discrimination Commons^™

Abortion Access: A Strain On The Most Vulnerable Women In Texas Post-Dobbs, Aleea Costilla

The Scholar: St. Mary's Law Review on Race and Social Justice

No abstract provided.

Standing Up To Bounty Laws: Examining State Standing Jurisprudence And Its Effect On Laws Enforced Through Private Rights Of Action, Olivia A. Luzzio

Washington and Lee Journal of Civil Rights and Social Justice

The Texas Heartbeat Act (SB 8) adopted a unique enforcement scheme that succeeded in circumventing Roe v. Wade’s protection of a woman’s right to abortion before viability. By prohibiting enforcement of the Act by public officials and instead authorizing enforcement solely through civil actions by “any person,” SB 8 effectively ended a women’s right to abortion after a fetal heartbeat is detected. The passage of this law placed the protection of other constitutionally endowed rights in jeopardy and facilitated the passage of similarly constructed legislation, such as California’s Senate Bill 1327, which authorizes “any person” to sue anyone who manufactures …

Abortion Rights And Disability Equality: A New Constitutional Battleground, Allison M. Whelan, Michele Goodwin

Washington and Lee Law Review

Abortion rights and access are under siege in the United States. Even while current state-level attacks take on a newly aggressive scale and scope—emboldened by the United States Supreme Court’s June 2022 decision in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization to overturn Roe v. Wade and Planned Parenthood of Southeastern Pennsylvania v. Casey—the legal landscape emerging in the wake of Dobbs is decades in the making. In this Article, we analyze the pre- and post-Roe landscapes, explaining that after the Supreme Court recognized a right to abortion in Roe in 1973, anti-abortionists sought to dismantle that right, first …

Denouncing The Revival Of Pre-Roe V. Wade Abortion Bans In A Post-Dobbs World Through The Void Ab Initio And Presumption Of Validity Doctrines, Nora Greene

American University Journal of Gender, Social Policy & the Law

The United States Supreme Court voted to overturn Roe v. Wade in a leaked draft of Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization. Written by Justice Alito and joined by four of the other conservative justices, the decision describes Roe as “egregiously wrong from the start” and blatantly overrules the landmark holding and its prodigy, Planned Parenthood v. Casey. In their state codes, nine states—Alabama, Arizona, Arkansas Michigan, Mississippi, Oklahoma, Texas, West Virginia, and Wisconsin— have unrepealed criminal abortion bans enacted before Roe. These bans prohibit abortion at any point in pregnancy unless to preserve the life of the pregnant person …

Ruth Bader Ginsburg, Wise Legal Giant, Thomas A. Schweitzer

Touro Law Review

No abstract provided.

Personhood: Law, Common Sense, And Humane Opportunities, Helen M. Alvaré

Washington and Lee Law Review Online

It is pointless to approach Professor Chatman’s argument on its own terms (to wit, “tak[ing] our laws seriously,” or equal application across myriad legal categories of “full personhood” rights) because these terms are neither seriously intended nor legally comprehensible. Instead, her essay is intended to create the impression that legally protecting unborn human lives against abortion opens up a Pandora’s box of legal complications so “ridiculous” and “far-fetched” that we should rather just leave things where they are under the federal Constitution post-Roe v. Wade and Planned Parenthood v. Casey. This impression, in turn, is a tool to …

Under Ten Eyes, Anthony Michael Kreis

Washington and Lee Law Review Online

Carliss Chatman’s If a Fetus Is a Person, It Should Get Child Support, Due Process and Citizenship brilliantly captures the moment America is in, where abortion rights hang in the balance as state legislators, like those in Alabama, Georgia, Ohio, and elsewhere clamor to embrace fetal personhood. But, as Professor Chatman illustrates, legislators have expressed no interest in the full logical extent of this policy or the rights that should attach to a fetus if their measures ultimately become effective. The article incisively demonstrates how fetal personhood is singularly focused on ending abortion in the United States and is gaining …

If A Fetus Is A Person, It Should Get Child Support, Due Process, And Citizenship, Carliss N. Chatman

Washington and Lee Law Review Online

This Article was originally published in The Washington Post on May 17, 2019. It has been edited and updated prior to its publication in the Washington and Lee Law Review.

Alabama has joined the growing number of states determined to overturn Roe v. Wade by banning abortion from conception forward. The Alabama Human Life Protection Act subjects a doctor who performs an abortion to as many as ninety-nine years in prison. The law has no exceptions for rape or incest. It redefines an “unborn child, child or person” as “[a] human being, specifically including an unborn child in utero …

Roe V. Wade: The Case That Changed Democracy, Adam Lamparello, Cynthia Swann

Tennessee Journal of Race, Gender, & Social Justice

No abstract provided.

Abortion Rights, Michael C. Dorf

Touro Law Review

No abstract provided.

Harris V. Mcrae: Whatever Happened To The Roe V. Wade Abortion Right?, Laura Crocker

Pepperdine Law Review

The controversial Roe v. Wade decision purportedly removed the abortion controversy from the political arena and set constitutional standards by which questions on the issue could be resolved. The enactment of the Hyde Amendment, a bill which generally forbids the use of Medicaid funds for abortions, was a recent political response to the abortion controversy. However, in the recent case of Harris v. McRae, the Supreme Court upheld the constitutionality of the Hyde Amendment and thus injected the abortion controversy back into the political arena. The author exhaustively examines the abortion controversy from the time of the Roe decision up …

The Scarlet Letter: The Supreme Court And The Language Of Abortion Stigma, Paula Abrams

Michigan Journal of Gender & Law

Why does the Supreme Court refer to the woman who is seeking an abortion as "mother"? Surely the definition has not escaped the attention of a Court that frequently relies on the dictionary to define important terms or principles. And why does the Court choose to describe the fetus as a child? What message does this language send about abortion and the woman who seeks an abortion? The Court's abortion decisions embody an ongoing debate on the legitimacy of constitutional protection of the right to choose. This debate unfolds most obviously as a discourse on constitutional interpretation; disagreements within the …

The Possibility Of Compromise: Antiabortion Moderates After Roe V. Wade, 1973–1980, Mary Ziegler

Chicago-Kent Law Review

Leading studies argue that Roe itself radicalized debate and marginalized antiabortion moderates, either by issuing a sweeping decision before adequate public support had developed or by framing the opinion in terms of moral absolutes. The polarization narrative on which leading studies rely obscures important actors and arguments that defined the antiabortion movement of the 1970s. First, contrary to what the polarization narrative suggests, self-identified moderates played a significant role in the mainstream antiabortion movement, shaping policies on issues like the treatment of unwed mothers or the Equal Rights Amendment. Working in organizations like Feminists for Life (FFL) or American Citizens …

Symposium: Feminist Theory And The Erosion Of Women's Reproductive Rights: The Implications Of Fetal Personhood Laws And In Vitro Fertilization, Lisa Mclennan Brown

American University Journal of Gender, Social Policy & the Law

No abstract provided.

Constitutional Law: Beyond The Bounds Of Roe: Does Stenberg V. Carhart Invalidate The Partial-Birth Abortion Ban Act Of 2003, Scott A. Hodges

Oklahoma Law Review

No abstract provided.

Some Effects Of Identity-Based Social Movements On Constitutional Law In The Twentieth Century, William N. Eskridge Jr.

Michigan Law Review

What motivated big changes in constitutional law doctrine during the twentieth century? Rarely did important constitutional doctrine or theory change because of formal amendments to the document's text, and rarer still because scholars or judges "discovered" new information about the Constitution's original meaning. Precedent and common law reasoning were the mechanisms by which changes occurred rather than their driving force. My thesis is that most twentieth century changes in the constitutional protection of individual rights were driven by or in response to the great identity-based social movements ("IBSMs") of the twentieth century. Race, sex, and sexual orientation were markers of …

The Rhetoric Of Disrespect: Uncovering The Faulty Premises Infecting Reproductive Rights, Elizabeth A. Riley

American University Journal of Gender, Social Policy & the Law

No abstract provided.

The Countermajoritarian Paradox, Neal Davis

Michigan Law Review

A Review of Liberty and Sexuality: The Right to Privacy and the Making of Roe v. Wade. by David J. Garrow

Toward A More Perfect Union: A Federal Cause Of Action For Physician Aid-In-Dying, Todd David Robichaud

University of Michigan Journal of Law Reform

Part I of this Note investigates the possible foundations of a constitutional right to physician aid-in-dying triggering section 1983 protection and the opposing state interests in preventing suicide. Part II examines the nature and scope of and obstacles to a request for section 1983 relief. Finally, Part III focuses on the public policy implications associated with recognizing a federal cause of action.

A Question Of Choice, Michele A. Estrin

Michigan Law Review

A Review of A Question of Choice by Sarah Weddington

Roe V. Wade And The Dred Scott Decision: Justice Scalia's Peculiar Analogy In Planned Parenthood V. Casey, Jamin B. Raskin

American University Journal of Gender, Social Policy & the Law

No abstract provided.

Unborn Child: Can You Be Protected?, Heather M. White

University of Richmond Law Review

Continuing medical advancement in the area of prenatal care' raises the question of when, if ever, the state may intervene in the life of a pregnant woman to protect her unborn child from abuse and neglect. This issue, though troublesome, can no longer be ignored. Since the Supreme Court's decision in Roe v. Wade, giving the pregnant woman the constitutional right to decide whether or not to terminate her pregnancy, there has been abundant controversy over the allowance of state intervention to protect the human fetus. This controversy necessarily entails a discussion as to when and in what manner the …

Abortion, Politics, And The Courts: Roe V. Wade And Its Aftermath, Michigan Law Review

Michigan Law Review

A Review of Abortion, Politics, and the Courts: Roe v. Wade and Its Aftermath by Eva R. Rubin

The Law Giveth…Legal Aspects Of The Abortion Controversy, Michigan Law Review

Michigan Law Review

A Review of The Law Giveth…Legal Aspects of the Abortion Controversy by Barbara Milbauer

The Michigan Abortion Refusal Act, G. Michael White

University of Michigan Journal of Law Reform

Since the United States Supreme Court handed down the landmark decisions of Roe v. Wade andDoe v. Bolton, which placed constitutional limitations, on state regulation of abortions, efforts have been made on the federal and state levels to blunt the effect of those cases. One prevalent reaction has been the enactment of state "conscience clause" legislation, such as the Michigan Abortion Refusal Act, which seeks to extend to all hospitals the right to refuse admission of abortion patients. This legislative note will consider whether the Michigan conscience clause is legally necessary to ensure the right it seeks to …