Categories
Abortion Constitutionality Court cases Late-term abortion Politics

How the Court Made Political Compromise Impossible

Randy Beck has just posted a new piece entitled Fueling Controversy on SSRN. He responds to a recent Yale Law Journal article by Linda Greenhouse and Reva Siegel, Before (and After) Roe v. Wade: New Questions about Backlash, in which they question the received wisdom that the Supreme Court’s decision in Roe v. Wade generated […]

Categories
Abortion Free Speech Politics

Quick addendum to clinic escort story

I recently blogged about the Ninth Circuit opinion requiring police to enforce the “Mother May I” or “speech free zones” against clinic escorts as well as sidewalk counselors here. Just discovered another story about Rev. Hoye’s prolife efforts in The Catholic Voice of Oakland Diocese. It seems he was behind the placement of several billboards […]

Categories
Abortion Constitutionality Court cases Free Speech Sidewalk Counseling

Speech by Sidewalk Counselors and Clinic “Escorts” Must be Treated the Same

Walter Hoye, a California pastor and sidewalk counselor, filed a federal constitutional challenge to the City of Oakland’s “Mother May I” ordinance restricting speech outside abortion clinics after having been arrested twice for approaching women seeking to enter abortion clinics. The case is Hoye v. Oakland. Evidence in the case established the Pastor Hoye attempted […]

Categories
Abortion Constitutionality Fetal anomolies and disabilities Fetal pain Legislation

Series of articles on the “viability rule”

Just discovered a series of articles exploring the Supreme Court’s position allowing post-viability abortion bans by Randy Beck. You can find Randy Beck’s articles at The Essential Holding of Casey: Rethinking Viability, Where’s the Syllogism?: Gonzales, Casey and the Viability Rule, and Self-Conscious Dicta: The Origins of Roe v. Wade’s Trimester Framework. These articles are […]

Categories
Abortion Constitutionality Medical abortion

Constitutionality of banning off-label use of drugs

When the FDA approved the sale of RU-486 in this country, the agency used a little known process historically reserved for life-saving drugs. Lars Noah described the process in his article, A Miscarriage in the Drug Approval Process?: Mifepristone Embroils the FDA in Abortion Politics. Since the approval of the drug, abortion providers have continued […]

Categories
Abortion Constitutionality Late-term abortion Philosophy Women's health

Allowing the Unborn to Live While Respecting Women’s Free Will

Compromising the Uncompromisable: A Private Property Rights Approach to Resolving the Abortion Controversy is a new posting on SSRN. This article, published in 2005 by two prolife professors, argues that medical technology allowing gestation outside the mother’s womb may eventually erode the right to abortion, if that right is understood to mean the right to […]

Categories
Abortion Constitutionality Contraception Fetal pain Legislation Planned Parenthood Politics

Cost of Unplanned Pregnancies and Laws on Fetal Pain

UFL member Michael New has some interesting observations on the Guttmacher Institute’s new report estimating the cost of unplanned pregnancies here and a brief comment on the NYT report regarding the passage of laws related to fetal pain here.

Categories
Abortion Constitutionality Informed consent Legislation Politics Religious views Ultrasound Women's health

North Carolina’s Woman’s Right to Know Act

The North Carolina legislature recently passed the Woman’s Right to Know Act, which requires a 24 hour waiting period before an abortion during which the pregant mother would have an opportunity to consider information and view an ultrasound. Governor Perdue vetoed the Act. North Carolina’s Catholic bishops have issued a statement urging an override. http://www.dioceseofraleigh.org/news/view.aspx?id=1167 […]

Categories
Abortion Constitutionality Feminism Politics

Sex Equality and State Interests in Abortion Regulation

Priscilla Smith, former Director of the Domestic Legal Program of the Center for Reproductive Rights from 2003-2007 and a litigating attorney with the Center for 13 years overall, has a new article on attacking abortion regulation through claims of sex discrimination. The article, Give Justice Ginsburg What She Wants: Using Sex Equality Arguments to Demand […]

Categories
Abortion Constitutionality Court cases Informed consent Ultrasound Women's health

Report on challenge to Texas law requiring sonogram before abortion

Here is a report on the pending lawsuit challenging the Texas law requiring that women be able to view a sonogram before obtaining an abortion. A ruling is expected by September. http://www.nationalrighttolifenews.org/news/2011/07/judge-hears-arguments-over-texas%e2%80%99-new-sonogram-law/#more-2963 Richard M.