Law Commons^™

Beyond Privacy: A Population Approach To Reproductive Rights, Wendy E. Parmet

Wendy E. Parmet

In recent years, public health arguments have gained new prominence in debates over abortion and access to reproductive health services. Opponents of reproductive rights in particular have used the language of public health, and the deference that public health law generally accords to state health regulations, to justify a variety of stringent regulations of reproductive health services. This Chapter considers the impact of this development on reproductive rights. It begins by exploring how each side in the reproductive rights debate has employed public health arguments and the impact of those arguments on judicial decisions, especially the Supreme Court’s decision in …