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Health Law and Policy

Boston University School of Law

Faculty Scholarship

Series

2020

Abortion

Articles 1 - 2 of 2

Full-Text Articles in Law

Floating Lungs: Forensic Science In Self-Induced Abortion Prosecutions, Aziza Ahmed May 2020

Floating Lungs: Forensic Science In Self-Induced Abortion Prosecutions, Aziza Ahmed

Faculty Scholarship

Pregnancy that ends in stillbirth or late miscarriage—particularly where a person gives birth outside of a hospital—raises the specter of criminal behavior. To successfully prosecute a person for the death of a child, however, requires proving that the child was born alive. Prosecutors mobilize forensic science as an objective way to determine life. This Essay focuses on one such forensic method: the hydrostatic lung test (“HLT”), also known as the floating lung test (“FLT”). Although there are debates about the “correct” way to perform the exam, in essence, the test requires that a forensic scientist take pieces of the lung …


How The Covid-19 Response Is Altering The Legal And Regulatory Landscape On Abortion, Aziza Ahmed Apr 2020

How The Covid-19 Response Is Altering The Legal And Regulatory Landscape On Abortion, Aziza Ahmed

Faculty Scholarship

The CARES Act, a two trillion-dollar stimulus bill designed to fund the response to COVID-19 and address the many economic shortfalls created by the pandemic, offered the first arena for Democrats and Republicans to bring questions of abortion access into the COVID-19 response. Republicans successfully pushed for the application of the abortion restrictions to CARES Act funding vis-à-vis the Hyde Amendment. The Hyde Amendment was passed in 1976 as part of an appropriations bill and has been passed as a rider every year since. It prevents federal dollars from being used to access abortions except in cases where the life …