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Selected Works

Khiara M Bridges

2019

Culture

Articles 1 - 2 of 2

Full-Text Articles in Law

When Pregnancy Is An Injury: Rape, Law, And Culture, Khiara M. Bridges Jul 2019

When Pregnancy Is An Injury: Rape, Law, And Culture, Khiara M. Bridges

Khiara M Bridges

This Article examines criminal statutes that grade more severely sexual assaults that result in pregnancy. These laws, which define pregnancy as a “substantial bodily injury,” run directly counter to positive constructions of pregnancy within culture. The fact that the criminal law, in this instance, reflects this negative, subversive understanding of pregnancy creates the possibility that this idea may be received within culture as a construction of pregnancy that is as legitimate as positive understandings. In this way, these laws create possibilities for the reimagining of pregnancy within law and society. Moreover, these laws recall the argumentation that proponents of abortion …


Life In The Balance: Judicial Review Of Abortion Regulations, Khiara Bridges Jul 2019

Life In The Balance: Judicial Review Of Abortion Regulations, Khiara Bridges

Khiara M Bridges

Since the Supreme Court’s decision in Roe v. Wade, scholars have been preoccupied with the test that ought to be applied to abortion regulations. Debate has swirled around the question of whether laws that burden the abortion right should be reviewed with strict scrutiny, rational basis review, or some other multi-factor or categorical test and at what point during pregnancy these tests are appropriate. Moreover, since Planned Parenthood v. Casey, in which the Court replaced Roe’s trimester framework with the undue burden standard, commentators have questioned the propriety of this new test. This Article argues that the most important change …