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Irrational Women: Informed Consent And Abortion Regret, Maya Manian

Maya Manian

This chapter explores the law’s failure in the twenty-first century to treat pregnant women as capable of making their own decisions concerning whether to have an abortion. The Supreme Court’s 2007 decision in Gonzales v. Carhart, which upheld a federal ban on a type of second-trimester abortion that many physicians believe is safest for their patients, brought the question of women’s capacity for abortion decision-making to the forefront of public legal consciousness. In Carhart, the Court abandoned its previous deference and respect for a woman’s right to be her own decision-maker with regard to abortion and instead determined that a …