Here is a link to today’s decision by the Eighth Circuit affirming a district court decision enjoining Missouri’s Down Syndrome abortion law. The appellate court’s decision was 2-1 with Judge Stras in dissent. The Missouri law prohibits abortions if the provider “knows that the woman is seeking the abortion solely because of a prenatal diagnosis, […]
Category: Constitutionality
Here is a link to an article by Paul Linton on overruling Roe v. Wade. With the Supreme Court’s grant of cert in Dobbs, this article couldn’t be more timely. Here is a portion of the abstract: “This article argues that, just as Justices Brennan and Marshall misread the “signs of the times” regarding the […]
Here is a good story by Dave Andrusko on laws banning Down syndrome abortions. Andrusko highlights the changing legal landscape and also mentions the importance of Justice Thomas’s opinion in the Box case in which Thomas empathized that such bans “promote a State’s compelling interest in preventing abortion from becoming a tool of modern-day eugenics.”
The US Supreme Court today agreed to decide Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization. For background on Dobbs, see this link. The Court limited its consideration to the first question presented by Mississippi’s cert petition: “Whether all pre-viability prohibitions on elective abortions are unconstitutional.” The cert petition was filed almost a year ago and there […]
Here is a link to the Sixth Circuit’s decision upholding Ohio’s law that “prohibits a doctor from performing an abortion if that doctor knows that the woman’s reason for having the abortion is that she does not want a child with Down syndrome.” The court explained that the law does not prohibit a woman from […]
Here is a link to another essay by John Finnis on constitutional personhood. In this essay, Finnis responds to an essay by Ed Whelan.The most recent essay by Finnis (dated April 9, 2021) contains links to the relevant essays in this important dialogue.
That is the title of this recent essay by John Finnis in the April 2021 issue of First Things. Here is his concluding paragraph in support of constitutional personhood and the unconstitutionality of laws permitting abortion: “A break in the nearly half-century silence on the Court about all these matters would enhance respect for law, […]
Here is a link to a divided opinion of the Seventh Circuit affirming a lower court ruling enjoining an Indiana law requiring parental notice before a minor may obtain an abortion. In contrast to the views of several federal circuits, the majority did not follow Chief Justice Robert’s concurrence in the June Medical case. Judge […]
Here is story from the Associated Press about the many pro-life laws that have recently been passed by state legislatures. The article also discusses how the courts might respond to suits challenging the constitutionality of these laws.
Here is link to a story in the National Catholic Register describing developments in Arkansas. According to the article: “Governor Asa Hutchinson on March 9 signed Senate Bill 6, also known as the Arkansas Unborn Child Protection Act, which bans abortions except when medically necessary to save the life of the mother. “