If U.S. Supreme Court litigation was a seminar on moral philosophy, I might agree with Robert Verbruggen that the workability of Roe v. Wade is not the best argument against Roe. But the first audience for the case for overruling Roe is the Justices. And there are several reasons why the case for the unworkability […]
The Future of Roe v. Wade
By taking the issue of abortion away from the American people and by imposing one policy for 50 states, the Supreme Court has roiled national politics and damaged its own standing — all in its one ruling in Roe v. Wade. Justice Blackmun’s opinion in Roe made up a right to abortion in American history, and admitted that […]
David Kaplan: Roe v. Wade Shows the Court is ‘too powerful’
Published just after the Kavanaugh hearings, David Kaplan’s book, The Most Dangerous Branch: Inside the Supreme Court’s Assault on the Constitution, is the newest criticism of the Rehnquist and Roberts Courts by a liberal legal commentator. His major theme is that the Supreme Court has become too powerful. While conservatives will dispute some of Kaplan’s […]
A Draft Opinion Overruling Roe v. Wade
Roe v. Wade has been subject to substantial judicial and scholarly criticism over the past forty-five years, but without an attempt specifically to explore how to overrule it in a majority opinion. This Article attempts to remedy that by drafting a model opinion that could be used to overrule Roe. The predicate for this Article’s […]
The Supreme Court Sows Confusion about Abortion Law
Clarifying and settling the law are among the most important responsibilities of the Supreme Court in the American constitutional system, and something the Court is frequently called on to do. “Ultimately it is this Court’s responsibility to clarify the scope of its own holdings,” as Justice William Brennan said more than a quarter of a century ago. It […]
Like 21 States, Congress should pass a five-month limit on abortion
In 2007, for the first time since 1973, five Supreme Court justices expressed grave concern with late-term abortions, in a case called Gonzales v. Carhart, and upheld the federal Partial-Birth Abortion Ban Act. Numerous lawyers and elected officials read the Supreme Court’s decision and thought the Justices were serious. So, since then, 21 states have enacted a prohibition […]
‘Constantly approximated:’ Aim for achievable changes in law, not ideal defeats
Part of the problem that Republicans are having in Congress is that too many of them seem to expect perfect or permanent laws. Virtually all legislation is provisional. Nations live with provisional governments and provisional treaties. They deal with current conditions. They are temporary, with the expectation that they will change. Some laws should change when conditions do. This is […]
Chile legalizes abortion, but rightly rejects Roe v. Wade logic
This summer, Chile legalized abortion for the first time since 1989. The legislation, slated to take effect in January 2018, legalizes abortion in cases of “risk to the mother’s life,” “fetal malformation incompatible with life,” and rape. The scope of these conditions — how they will be applied — remains to be seen. A case testing the […]
Is Roe v. Wade unraveling?
In 2013, a federal judge surveyed the state of abortion practice in Alabama, pointing out that the medical profession had abandoned abortion, that almost no doctors did them, and that providers who did were flown in from out of state or out of the country. The judge had stumbled on some of the reasons that […]
How the Next President Can Protect Human Life
When Donald Trump commented that “the laws are set” on abortion, he articulated a profound misunderstanding of the legal realities of the issue and the impact they will have on the next president of the United States. The laws on abortion have not been “set” since the Supreme Court nationalized the issue with its 1973 […]
The back alley the justices created … and ignore
Five Supreme Court justices — Anthony Kennedy, Stephen Breyer, Ruth Bader Ginsburg, Elena Kagan and Sonia Sotomayor — canceled health and safety regulations for Texas abortion clinics in June with their decision in Whole Woman’s Health v. Hellerstedt. These were long-standing, generally applicable regulations for all ambulatory surgical treatment centers in that state. But when […]
Today is Lincoln’s Birthday
As we commemorate President Abraham Lincoln’s birthday today (February 12, 1809), reflecting on his life inspires us in our work to secure comprehensive protection of human life from conception to natural death. While Lincoln’s accomplishments as president—including his drive to secure “a new birth of freedom”—are most familiar to Americans, his political actions and speeches […]
The Legal Legacy of Dennis Horan, Esq. for Protecting Human Life—Chairman of the Board of Americans United for Life—on the occasion of the 25th anniversary of his death
Between 1970 and his death on May 1, 1988, Dennis J. Horan had an enormous influence on the development of American law protecting human life. Dennis had a significant impact on the development of the law protecting human life in several ways: Influencing the abortion litigation leading up to Roe v. Wade, and educating leaders […]
Summary of the Alabama Supreme Court’s decisions today involving drug use during pregnancy
The Alabama Supreme Court released two decisions today holding that the Alabama state “chemical endangerment” statute protects an unborn child without regard to the stage of pregnancy. Ex parte Ankrom; Ex parte Kimbrough. The decisions mean that the “chemical endangerment” statute can be used in Alabama to criminally prosecute women who take drugs while pregnant. […]
Commentary on a 40 year old medical opinion misses numerous points
In the midst of the feeding frenzy over Todd Akin’s now-infamous rape remark, a number of pro-life groups, including Americans United for Life have fallen victim to a misunderstanding, at best. A 40-year-old collection of essays we funded prior to Roe v. Wade included an essay by Dr. Fred E. Mecklenburg that has been used […]
Roe v. Wade: The View from 1993
1992 was a year of disappointing setbacks for pro-life Americans. When most observers thought the Supreme Court was on the verge of overruling its 1973 decisions in Roe v. Wade and Doe v. Bolton, a bare majority of five justices reaffirmed the Roe v. Wade decision on June 29, 1992, at least in its essentials—a […]
