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2020

Health Law and Policy

Pandemic

Faculty Publications

Articles 1 - 2 of 2

Full-Text Articles in Law

Feminist Perspectives On Disaster, Pandemics, And Intimate Partner Violence, Margaret Drew Dec 2020

Feminist Perspectives On Disaster, Pandemics, And Intimate Partner Violence, Margaret Drew

Faculty Publications

The COVID-19 pandemic brought international awareness to the likelihood of increased abuse of those in abusive intimate partner relationships because of the forced confinement with their abusers (Bettinger-Lopez and Bro, A double pandemic: domestic violence in the age of COVID 19, Council on Foreign Relations. https://www.cfr.org/in-brief/double-pandemic-domestic-violence-age-covid-19, 2020). While this awareness was much discussed, assistance to survivors of abuse was limited because survivors often could not reach out for help, nor could advocates wishing to offer assistance safely reach in to advise them (Taub, A new Covid-19 crisis: domestic abuse rises worldwide. https://www.nytimes.com/2020/04/06/world/coronavirus-domestic-violence.html, 2020). The ever-present influence of the …


Essentially Elective: The Law And Ideology Of Restricting Abortion During The Covid-19 Pandemic, B. Jessie Hill Jan 2020

Essentially Elective: The Law And Ideology Of Restricting Abortion During The Covid-19 Pandemic, B. Jessie Hill

Faculty Publications

During the COVID-19 pandemic, several states adopted orders temporarily suspending elective surgeries and procedures. A subset of those states moved to limit abortions under those orders, provoking emergency litigation to keep abortion clinics open and functioning. No similar lawsuits have been necessary to protect access to other time-sensitive medical procedures. So why was abortion singled out for disparate treatment?

This Essay provides an overview of the litigation that ensued in the wake of some states’ attempts to limit abortion access under the authority of executive orders banning non-essential or elective procedures. It argues that abortion was singled out in two …