Law and Gender Commons^™

Compelled Medical Treatment Of Pregnant Women: The Balancing Of Maternal And Fetal Rights , Pamala Harris

Cleveland State Law Review

This note explores the question: is it ever permissible for a physician or a judge to compel a pregnant woman to submit to medical treatment for the benefit of her fetus? This note begins by examining the ideology of motherhood and the legal status of the fetus. This note then examines the ethical aspects and legal issues involved in compelling a pregnant woman to undergo treatment for the benefit of her fetus. This note then explores the controls of pregnancy that result in maternal-fetal conflicts. Finally, this note examines the court's use of a balancing test in reaching decisions in …

The Charleston Policy: Substance Or Abuse?, Kimani Paul-Emile

Michigan Journal of Race and Law

In 1989, the Medical University of South Carolina (MUSC) adopted a policy that, according to subjective criteria, singled out for drug testing, certain women who sought prenatal care and childbirth services would be tested for prohibited substances. Women who tested positive were arrested, incarcerated and prosecuted for crimes ranging from misdemeanor substance possession to felony substance distribution to a minor. In this Article, the Author argues that by intentionally targeting indigent Black women for prosecution, the MUSC Policy continued the United States legacy of their systematic oppression and resulted in the criminalizing of Black Motherhood.

Maternal-Fetal Conflicts, The Social Construction Of Maternal Deviance, And Some Thoughts About Love And Justice, April L. Cherry

Law Faculty Articles and Essays

FIRST PARAGRAPH: In the short amount of time that we have together today, I would like to accomplish three tasks. First, I would like to offer a brief overview of what and whom we are talking about when we talk about "maternal-fetal conflicts." Second, I would like to discuss some of the assumptions that are held about the women involved in these "conflicts," with the hope that giving voice to these assumptions might help us better understand why we may be willing to accept the coerced medical treatment of pregnant women, or legal sanctions against pregnant women who refuse treatment …

Testing Testing, Carl E. Schneider

Articles

Last year, Congress passed the Ryan White Care Act Amendments of 1996. The amendments authorize ten million dollars for each fiscal year from 1996 through 2000 for counseling pregnant women on HIV disease, for "outreach efforts to pregnant women at high risk of HN who are not currently receiving prenatal care," and for voluntary testing for pregnant women. The amendments compromise a central question: whether prenatal and neonatal AIDS testing should be compelled. The compromise is complex. The director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is instructed to establish a system for states to use to discover and …

Ru 486 Examined: Impact Of A New Technology On An 0 Id Controversy, Gwendolyn Prothro

University of Michigan Journal of Law Reform

Abortion is an extremely divisive issue in American politics and culture. Prothro begins this Article by analyzing the current legal standards governing reproduction, which draw a sharp distinction between abortion and contraception. Prothro then examines the function of RU 486, demonstrating that it acts both as a contraceptive and as an abortifacient. Because of this dual capacity, RU 486 does not fit neatly into the current legal framework. Prothro concludes this Article by arguing that RU 486 should force the Supreme Court to create a new framework for the "procreative right." Prothro argues that this new framework should treat the …

Unshackling Black Motherhood, Dorothy E. Roberts

Michigan Law Review

When stories about the prosecutions of women for using drugs during pregnancy first appeared in newspapers in 1989, I immediately suspected that most of the defendants were Black women. Charging someone with a crime for giving birth to a baby seemed to fit into the legacy of devaluing Black mothers. I was so sure of this intuition that I embarked on my first major law review article based on the premise that the prosecutions perpetuated Black women's subordination. My hunch turned out to be right: a memorandum prepared by the ACLU Reproductive Freedom Project documented cases brought against pregnant women …

United States. V. Virginia New Gender Equal Protection Analysis With Ramifications For Pregnancy, Parenting And Title Vii, Candace Kovacic-Fleischer

Scholarly Articles in Law Reviews & Journals

ABSTRACT: In this Article, Professor Kovacic-Fleischer argues that the Supreme Court's recent decision in United States v. Virginia raises gender equal protection analysis to the level of strict scrutiny. Professor Kovacic-Fleischer asserts that the Court's refusal to accept as immutable VMI's single-sex institutional design, and the Court's requirement that VMT make adjustments and alterations that will enable qualified women to undertake VM's curriculum evidences this shift in gender equal protection analysis. Professor Kovacic-Fleischer then turns to the significance of the Court's citation to California Federal Savings & Loan Association v. Guerra. She asserts that this citation indicates that the Court …

The Proposed Model Surrogate Parenthood Act: A Legislative Response To The Challenges Of Reproductive Technology, Murray L. Manus

University of Michigan Journal of Law Reform

In this Article, Manus proposes a Model Surrogate Parenthood Act. He examines the medical and scientific history of surrogacy and reviews the jurisprudence in the area, specifically the constitutional relationship between procreation rights and surrogacy. The author asserts that surrogate motherhood cannot be, and indeed, should not be, eradicated through legislation criminalizing it. The proposed Model Act, presented here in its entirety, attempts to reduce the problems inherent in the concept of surrogate parenthood by putting the process under strict court supervision and by zealously protecting the rights of the surrogate mother and the child to be conceived.

China's Denial Of Tibetan Women's Right To Reproductive Freedom, Eva Herzer, Sara B. Levin

Michigan Journal of Gender & Law

This Article first provides a historical account of the social and political context of the PRC's family planning policies in Tibet. Part B describes the PRC's official family policies from 1982 to the present. Part C discusses the PRC's actual practices, including its population quota controls, focusing on the forced and coerced abortions and sterilizations performed on Tibetan women. Part D applies international human rights law and concludes that the PRC's family planning policy, as implemented, violates international human rights laws. The Article concludes by recommending points of action for the PRC and international community to address these human rights …

A Case For Pregnancy-Based Unemployment Insurance, Mark R. Brown

University of Michigan Journal of Law Reform

Professor Brown argues that unemployment insurance laws should be amended to provide coverage to otherwise eligible, pregnant claimants. Under current law, women who quit because of pregnancy are either disqualified from receiving unemployment benefits altogether or qualify only after childbirth. Those who are fired, meanwhile, often either cannot prove the motivation for their discharge or discover that they are disqualified because of their unavailability for work. Professor Brown uses a case study to illustrate the problems posed by pregnancy and unemployment insurance. He proposes model legislation that extends coverage to all pregnant claimants who temporarily separate from their employment.

Homologizing Pregnancy And Motherhood: A Consideration Of Abortion, Julia E. Hanigsberg

Michigan Law Review

In this essay I reconsider abortion in order to bridge what initially seem to be two opposing frameworks: first, the conception of abortion as an issue of women's bodily integrity and liberty, and second, the acknowledgement of the existence and meaning of intrauterine life. The abortion choice is indeed deeply and necessarily tied to women's bodily integrity. I will discuss how taking away women's ability to control their decision not to become mothers can be severely damaging to their very sense of self, for this denial of decisionmaking divides women from their wombs and uses their wombs for a purpose …

Pregnancy And Unemployment: Problems And Solutions?, Mark R. Brown

University of Michigan Journal of Law Reform

Abstract for a piece in the 1995 Unemployment Compensation: Continuity and Change symposium presented by the Advisory Council on Unemployment Compensation and the University of Michigan Journal of Law Reform.

Judging Girls: Decision Making In Parental Consent To Abortion Cases, Suellyn Scarnecchia, Julie Kunce Field

Articles

Judges make determinations on a daily basis that profoundly affect people's lives. On March 28, 1991, the Michigan legislature enacted a statute entitled The Parental Rights Restoration Act (hereinafter "the Michigan Act" or "the Act"). This statute delegated to probate court judges the extraordinary task of deciding whether a minor girl may have an abortion without the consent of a parent. Nothing in law school and little in an average judge's experience provide a meaningful framework for making such a decision. Although many commentators, including the authors, argue that decisions about abortion should be left to the woman regardless of …

Siberian Tigers And Exotic Birds: Ronald Dworkin's Map Of The Sacred, Hester Lessard

Dalhousie Law Journal

At its most abstract, Life's Dominion: An Argument about Abortion, Euthanasia, and Individual Freedom is a meditation on the nature of individual freedom. However, as author Ronald Dworkin explains at the end of Chapter One, he believes in doing philosophy in much the same way common law jurists believe in doing law-from the inside out-that is, by starting with a concrete problem and then proceeding to the more general questions raised by that problem. According to Dworkin, this generates a theory that is appropriately tailored to the issue, "Savile Row" so to speak, rather than "Seventh Avenue," and thus a …

Condescending Contradictions: Richard Posner's Pragmatism And Pregnancy Discrimination, Ann C. Mcginley, Jeffrey W. Stempel

Scholarly Works

Richard Posner’s, the Chief Judge of the United States Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit, judicial actions have been criticized, primarily for inconsistently commingling economic analysis with other approaches to decisionmaking in an effort to reach personally pleasing results that are at odds with Posner's professed commitment to methodological rigor. Although criticism of Posner's judging is diverse, a common theme is that he too frequently marshals his argumentative force merely to uphold the economic rights of the powerful. In other words, according to the critics, after the rush of intellectual excitement subsides, litigants and the justice system are left …

The Legal Significance Of Gestation, Larry I. Palmer

Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

The Impact Of Public Abortion Funding Decisions On Lndigent Women: A Proposal To Reform State Statutory And Constitutional Abortion Funding Provisions, Carole A. Corns

University of Michigan Journal of Law Reform

This Note argues that state legislatures should relax funding restrictions on abortions for indigent women and proposes specific mechanisms to ensure the equal protection of indigent women in the abortion context. Part I briefly recounts the history of federal funding for abortions, from the liberal post-Roe funding scheme to the restrictive funding arrangements that have prevailed since the early 1980s. Part II surveys the existing literature and discusses patterns of state funding and the impact of funding restrictions on indigent women seeking abortions. This literature shows that the tightening of state funding policies subsequent to the federal Medicaid restrictions has …

Women, Mothers, And The Law Of Fright: A History, Martha Chamallas, Linda K. Kerber

Michigan Law Review

This article presents a gendered history of the law's treatment of fright-based physical injuries. Our goal is to connect the law of fright to the changing cultural and intellectual forces of the twentieth century. Through a feminist lens, we reexamine the accounts of the legal treatment of fright-based injuries offered by Victorian-erajurists, traditionalist legal scholars of the first two decades of the twentieth century, a legal realist in the 1930s, and a Freudian medical-legal commentator from the 1940s, all of whom helped to shape present-day tort doctrine. We conclude with an account of Dillon v. Legg, in which the …

Improving Substance Abuse Treatment For Women, Brenda V. Smith

Scholarly Articles in Law Reviews & Journals

Alcohol and other drug use among women of child-bearing age has increased dramatically, and, as a result, more pregnant women are faced with alcohol and other drug problems. The only known national estimate suggests that 11 percent of pregnant women used illegal drugs during their pregnancy. Although pregnant crack-addicted women have received the most media attention, the problem is no less serious for alcohol and other drugs.

Alcohol and other drug use during pregnancy has negative physical and psychological consequences for both the mother and the child. Alcoholic mothers are at risk of having infants with fetal alcohol syndrome, which …

The Criminalization Of Maternal Conduct During Pregnancy: A Decisionmaking Model For Lawyers, Elizabeth L. Thompson

Indiana Law Journal

No abstract provided.

From Driving To Drugs: Governmental Regulation Of Pregnant Women's Lives After Webster, Dawn E. Johnsen

Articles by Maurer Faculty

No abstract provided.

Prenatal Caretaking: Limits Of State Intervention With And Without Roe, Sharon E. Rush

UF Law Faculty Publications

With or without Roe, difficult questions regarding the state's role in prenatal caretaking remain. Unless the Supreme Court addresses the assumptions underlying the abortion controversy, overruling Roe would not resolve the problem of allocating decision making responsibility between the woman and the state during the woman's pregnancy. Fundamental constitutional questions about life and death, parental authority over the fetus, and the scope of the woman's right of privacy outside of abortion have not been answered by the Supreme Court.

Denial Of Unemployment Benefits To Otherwise Eligible Women On The Basis Of Pregnancy: Section 3304(A)(12) Of Federal Unemployment Tax Act, Michigan Law Review

Michigan Law Review

This Note examines the conflicting interpretations of section 3304(a)(12) of the Federal Act. The Porcher decision serves as a point of reference throughout this Note, since opposing constructions of the section were presented in the case. Part I describes the basic framework of FUTA and presents the disparate interpretations of section 3304(a)(12) that have been advanced.

Part II analyzes section 3304(a)(12) with reference to the statutory language and legislative history. As a preliminary matter, this part considers the degree of deference that should be afforded the Secretary of Labor's certification of state programs that treat pregnancy like all other medical …

The Abortion-Funding Cases And Population Control: An Imaginary Lawsuit (And Some Reflections On The Uncertain Limits Of Reproductive Privacy), Susan Frelich Appleton

Michigan Law Review

Two issues are before us today: (I) the meaning of the term "medically necessary" in a public hospital's charter and (II) the constitutionality of state action that provides free medical treatment to indigent pregnant women seeking an abortion but denies them such assistance for prenatal care and childbirth. On the basis of recent Supreme Court authority, we find that such action violates neither the hospital's charter nor the United States Constitution.

Roe V. Wade And The Lesson Of The Pre-Roe Case Law, Richard Gregory Morgan

Michigan Law Review

The politically unsettled and judicially confused law of abortion in 1971 and 1972, when the Court twice heard arguments and deliberated Roe, should have warned it not to decide the case. By doing so; the Court thrust itself into a political debate and stunted the development of a thoughtful lower-court case law. If the Court did perceive the warnings but continued toward a decision anyway, perhaps trusting that its own considerable wits would devise an answer the lower courts had not, the result suggests that the judicial system's axioms deserve more respect than they received. This Article, by showing …

The Politics Of Abortion In The House Of Representatives In 1976, Maris A. Vinovskis

Michigan Law Review

The battle over federal funds for abortions and the attempts to pass a constitutional amendment to prohibit all abortions have become annual events that most members of Congress privately dread but publicly welcome. As "pro-life" and "pro-choice" constituents descend upon their elected officials each year, representatives are forced to face an issue that has no easy legislative solution. Despite the intensity and disruptiveness of these confrontations, there have been no thorough and independent analyses of this phenomenon. Instead, most information on the abortion controversy in Congress has come from the understandably biased pens of the activists on both sides. Representatives …

The Juridical Status Of The Fetus: A Proposal For Legal Protection Of The Unborn, Patricia A. King

Michigan Law Review

What claims to protection can be asserted by a human fetus? That question, familiar to philosophy and religion, has long haunted law as well. While the philosophical and theological issues remain unresolved, and are perhaps unresolvable, I believe that we can no longer avoid some resolution of the legal status of the fetus. The potential benefits of fetal research, the ability to fertilize the human ovum in a laboratory dish, and the increasing awareness that a mother's activities during pregnancy may affect the health of her offspring create pressing policy issues that raise possible conflicts among fetuses, mothers, and researchers. …

Rewriting Roe V. Wade, Donald H. Regan

Articles

Roe v. Wade is one of the most controversial cases the Supreme Court has decided. The result in the case - the establishment of a constitutional right to abortion - was controversial enough. Beyond that, even people who approve of the result have been dissatisfied with the Court's opinion. Others before me have attempted to explain how a better opinion could have been written. It seems to me, however, that the most promising argument in support of the result of Roe has not yet been made. This essay contains my suggestions for "rewriting" Roe v. Wade

Sexual Divisions In Law, Christine Boyle

Dalhousie Law Journal

I remember Katherine O'Donovan vividly. She was a young law lecturer at Queen's University Belfast when I was a first-year student there seventeen years ago. Law, on the whole, does not provide a large number of women to stimulate one's aspirations, but Katherine O'Donovan would have been outstanding in any context. She was clever and as beautiful as her name. She has written an outstanding book.