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Series

Health Law and Policy

Boston University School of Law

Court

2001

Articles 1 - 2 of 2

Full-Text Articles in Law

Testing Poor Pregnant Women For Cocaine: Physicians As Police Investigators, George J. Annas Jan 2001

Testing Poor Pregnant Women For Cocaine: Physicians As Police Investigators, George J. Annas

Faculty Scholarship

In 1989, Supreme Court Justice Thurgood Marshall surmised that “declaring a war on illegal drugs is good public policy . . . [but] the first, and worst, casualty of war will be the precious liberties of our citizens.” The same year, in the midst of President George Bush's “war on drugs,” the Medical University of South Carolina initiated a program to screen selected pregnant patients for cocaine and to provide positive test results to the police. At a time of high public concern about “cocaine babies,” this program seemed reasonable to the university and local public officials. Drug-screening programs in …


“Partial-Birth Abortion” And The Supreme Court, George J. Annas Jan 2001

“Partial-Birth Abortion” And The Supreme Court, George J. Annas

Faculty Scholarship

Aortion has long been, and remains, the most politicized medical procedure in the United States. It has been the subject of more state and federal legislation than all other medical procedures combined. The U.S. Supreme Court, which almost never hears cases about medical procedures, has regularly heard cases over the past 25 years concerning the constitutionality of various state laws designed to limit abortion. Thus, it was only a matter of time before the Court would hear a case on the constitutionality of laws restricting so-called partial-birth abortion. When the Court heard a challenge to Nebraska's law, statutes relating to …