eBook

Rethinking Abortion

Graber, Mark

1999,1996,2015

Overview

Mark Graber looks at the history of abortion law in action to argue that the only defensible, constitutional approach to the issue is to afford all women equal choice--abortion should remain legal or bans should be strictly enforced. Steering away from metaphysical critiques of privacy, Graber compares the philosophical, constitutional, and democratic merits of the two systems of abortion regulation witnessed in the twentieth century: pre-Roe v. Wadestatutory prohibitions on abortion andRoe'sban on significant state interference with the market for safe abortion services. He demonstrates that beforeRoe,pro-life measures were selectively and erratically administered, thereby subverting our constitutional commitment to equal justice. Claiming that these measures would be similarly administered if reinstated, the author seeks to increase support for keeping abortion legal, even among those who have reservations about its morality. Abortion should remain legal, Graber argues, because statutory bans on abortion have a history of being enforced in ways that intentionally discriminate against poor persons and persons of color. In the years beforeRoe, the same law enforcement officials who routinely ignored and sometimes assisted those physicians seeking to terminate pregnancies for their private patients too often prevented competent abortionists from offering the same services to the general public. This double standard violated the fundamental human and constitutional right of equal justice under law, a right that remains a major concern of the equal protection clause of the Fourteenth Amendment.

• Publisher: Princeton University Press
• Subject: Abortion / Abortion -- Government policy -- United States / Abortion -- Political aspects -- United States / Abortion -- United States -- Moral and ethical aspects / Abortion debate / Abortion in Georgia (U.S. state) / Abortion in the United States / Abortion law / Abortion-rights movements / American Life League / Andrea Dworkin / Anti-abortion movements / Barefoot v. Estelle / Bernard Nathanson / Birth control / Black school / Brown v. Board of Education / City of Akron v. Akron Center for Reproductive Health / Civil Rights Act of 1991 / Disparate impact / Dred Scott v. Sandford / Equal Rights Amendment / Freedom of Choice Act / Furman v. Georgia / Government policy / Harris v. McRae / Hyde Amendment / Illegal abortion / Incest / Indication (medicine) / Infanticide / John Doe / Judicial activism / Judicial deference / Law enforcement / Liberal elite / Maternal death / McCleskey v. Kemp / Medicaid / Moral and ethical aspects / NARAL Pro-Choice America / Natural family planning / Necessity / Norma McCorvey / Operation Rescue (Kansas) / Oppression / Pacifism / Pathology / Phyllis Schlafly / Planned Parenthood v. Casey / Political aspects / Poor person / Popular sovereignty / Premarital sex / Prostitution / Radical feminism / Reasonable suspicion / Rely (brand) / Republicans for Choice / Right to privacy / Roe v. Wade / Safe sex / Secularism / Selective enforcement / Sexual abstinence / Sister Souljah / Social groups / SOCIAL SCIENCE / SOCIAL SCIENCE / Sociology / General / Sociology / Spite fence / State actor / Thalidomide / That Justice Be Done / Therapeutic abortion / Unintended pregnancy / United States / United States Bill of Rights / United States v. Vuitch / Unsafe abortion / Webster v. Reproductive Health Services / Women's Studies
• ISBN: 1400821975, 9781400821976, 0691005273, 9780691005270