Health Law and Policy Commons^™

Judith Jarvis Thomson On Abortion; A Libertarian Perspective, Walter E. Block

DePaul Journal of Health Care Law

Introduction:

Judith Jarvis Thompson, an eminent philosopher from MIT, has written the most widely cited article of all those ever written about abortion. She likens the fetus to a trespasser. Suppose you wake up in bed next to a famous violinist who is (innocently) connected to your kidney, through a sort of umbilical cord, without which he will die. What rights does he have? What obligations do you have? Using this brilliant analogy to pregnancy, she sheds light on the abortion controversy.

Method:

The method used in the present paper is to widely quote Thompson’s (1971) essay, and then to …

Finding A Right To Abortion Coverage: The Ppaca, Intersectionality, And Positive Rights, Courtney Olson

Seattle University Law Review

During a floor debate in 1976, Representative Henry Hyde explained, “I would certainly like to prevent, if I could legally, anybody having an abortion, a rich woman, a middle class woman, or a poor woman. Unfortunately, the only vehicle available is the [Medicaid] bill.” For a short time after the Supreme Court of the United States established the right to abortion in Roe v. Wade, Medicaid did not distinguish between coverage for abortion and other medical services. That all changed when Congress passed the Hyde Amendment to the Medicaid Act in 1976. This Note will argue that a right to …

Will The Zika Virus Enable A Transplant Of Roe V. Wade To Brazil?, Amanda Greenberg

University of Miami Inter-American Law Review

No abstract provided.

Constitutionalizing Abortion Rights In Canada, Joanna Erdman

Articles, Book Chapters, & Popular Press

This article endeavours to understand the feminist activism from which constitutional abortion rights in Canada were born in the landmark Supreme Court case of R v Morgentaler 1988, and the influence of these rights on continued feminist activism for reproductive justice. Part I reviews abortion practice in the ‘back-alley’ prior to and immediately after the 1969 criminal reform with attention to the direct service activism of liberation feminists in their campaign to repeal the abortion law as a matter of constitutional justice. Part II turns to adjudication in the courts to study how judicial reasoning channelled these constitutional claims, exploring …

Access To Knowledge And The Global Abortion Policies Database, Joanna Erdman, Brooke Johnson

Articles, Book Chapters, & Popular Press

Research shows that women, healthcare providers, and even policy makers worldwide have limited or inaccurate knowledge of the abortion law and policies in their country. These knowledge gaps sometimes stem from the vague and broad terms of the law, which breed uncertainty and even conflict when unaccompanied by accessible regulation or guidelines. Inconsistency across national law and policy further impedes safe and evidence‐based practice. This lack of transparency creates a crisis of accountability. Those seeking care cannot know their legal entitlements, service providers cannot practice with legal protection, and governments can escape legal responsibility for the adverse effects of their …

Access To Knowledge And The Global Abortion Policies Database, Joanna Erdman, Brooke Johnson

Articles, Book Chapters, & Popular Press

Research shows that women, healthcare providers, and even policy makers worldwide have limited or inaccurate knowledge of the abortion law and policies in their country. These knowledge gaps sometimes stem from the vague and broad terms of the law, which breed uncertainty and even conflict when unaccompanied by accessible regulation or guidelines. Inconsistency across national law and policy further impedes safe and evidence‐based practice. This lack of transparency creates a crisis of accountability. Those seeking care cannot know their legal entitlements, service providers cannot practice with legal protection, and governments can escape legal responsibility for the adverse effects of their …

Personhood Seeking New Life With Republican Control, Jonathan Will, I. Glenn Cohen, Eli Y. Adashi

Journal Articles

Just three days prior to the inauguration of Donald J. Trump as President of the United States, Representative Jody B. Hice (R-GA) introduced the Sanctity of Human Life Act (H R. 586), which, if enacted, would provide that the rights associated with legal personhood begin at fertilization. Then, in October 2017, the Department of Health and Human Services released its draft strategic plan, which identifies a core policy of protecting Americans at every stage of life, beginning at conception. While often touted as a means to outlaw abortion, protecting the "lives" of single-celled zygotes may also have implications for the …