Source: http://www.apksforandroid.com/7f6/issues/in_the_national_system/
Timestamp: 2019-04-25 10:14:12+00:00

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This section of the web site will contain information about federal court cases and federal laws and policies that influence pregnant and parenting women, their families, and their communities.
Nominee: Is there a point in pregnancy when you believe women lose their civil rights?
Roe stands for much more than the right to terminate a pregnancy. As the Supreme Court explained in later cases, Roe has been “sensibly relied upon to counter” attempts to interfere with a woman's decision to become pregnant or to carry her pregnancy to term.3 In Roe, the Court rejected the argument that fetuses are persons and that states may treat them as such. In so doing the Court protected the Constitutional personhood of women. Thus, while the court in Roe recognized a limited state interest in potential life that permits states to prohibit access to abortion under some circumstances, the decision established that there is no point in pregnancy when women lose their fundamental civil rights – to bodily integrity, informed medical decision-making, due process, liberty, and life itself.
When laws criminalizing abortion were originally passed in the United States, one justification was to protect pregnant women from what had been, but is no longer, a dangerous procedure. Today the primary argument for outlawing abortion is that the “unborn” have separate legal rights. As Ramesh Ponnuru, a conservative writer, explained in a piece imagining life after Roe: “The crucial legal goal of the pro-life movement is . . . that unborn children be protected in law.”10 This is one reason why the harm of overturning Roe extends beyond the issue of abortion.
Fortunately, these horrific cases do not represent controlling legal precedent. Many of the cases were dismissed when challenged and most of the lower court decisions upholding these state actions were overturned on appeal. Those cases that survived do so only as exceptional outliers, in part, because Roe stands as the law of the land.
Because decisions regarding Roe v. Wade will inevitably affect all pregnant women, we the undersigned request that the Judiciary Committee ask Judge Sotomayor (and every future Supreme Court nominee): Is there a point in pregnancy when you believe women lose their civil rights? If so, what is that point; and on what do you base your conclusion?
Dázon Dixon Diallo, MPH, President and CEO, SisterLove, Inc.
1 Editorial, Choosing a New Justice, N.Y. Times, May 7, 2009, at A30 (“If Mr. Obama chooses someone who believes Roe v. Wade was wrong, for example, abortion rights could be lost for a generation.”); James Oliphant, Abortion Issue Looms Over Supreme Court Choice, L.A. Times, May 3, 2009 (“Abortion issue looms over Supreme Court choice”); Editorial, Souter: The Extremist, Wash. Times, May 4, 2009 (“Mr. Souter's extremist position on abortion puts to rest the popular canard that he is a moderate.”).
2 Roe v. Wade, 410 U.S. 113 (1973).
3 Planned Parenthood v. Casey, 505 U.S. 833, 859 (1992).
4 Bob Woodward & Scott Armstrong, The Brethren 233 (1979) (noting that during the Court’s deliberation on Roe, Justice Stewart insisted that the Court rule explicitly on the question of fetal personhood recognizing that creating a competition between the fetus and women and “[w]eighing two sets of rights would be dangerous”).
5 See Ward Cates, Legal Abortion: The Public Health Record, 215 Science 1586 (1982) (estimating that, before Roe, 200,000 to 1,200,000 illegal abortions were performed each year and that in 1965, 235 women died from illegal abortions).
6 See, e.g., In re Vickers, 123 N.W.2d 253 (Mich. 1963) (affirming dismissal of habeas corpus petition of a woman being held in county jail for contempt resulting from refusal to answer questions about her abortion); Commonwealth v. Hauze, 4 Pa. D. & C.2d 61 (Pa. Ct. Quarter Sess. 1955) (approving of indictment charging woman with conspiracy to submit to her own abortion); Jon Nordheimer, She’s Fighting Conviction for Aborting Her Child, N.Y. Times, Dec. 4, 1971, at 37 (Shirley Ann Wheeler was convicted of manslaughter because she had an abortion); 2 Held in Abortion Ring, N.Y. Times, Apr. 8, 1943, at 24 (Julia Mae Norwood was arrested in Connecticut for submitting to an abortion when police raided a suspected abortion provider’s residence); A Woman’s Crime, N.Y. Times, Jan. 22, 1878, at 8 (“Mrs. Margaret Koster … was arrested on complaint of her husband, last night, by Detective Schmitberger, of the Twentieth Precinct, on a charge of abortion. The woman was locked up pending the action of the Coroner.”).
8 Gilda Sedgh et al., Induced Abortion: Estimated Rates and Trends Worldwide, 370 Lancet 1338 (2007).
9 See David A. Grimes et al., Unsafe Abortion: The Preventable Pandemic, 368 Lancet 1908 (2006).
11 Janet Gallagher, Prenatal Invasions & Interventions: What’s Wrong with Fetal Rights, 10 Harv. Women’s L.J. 9 (1987).
12 In re A.C., 573 A.2d 1235, 1253 (D.C. 1990) (en banc) (vacating a court-ordered cesarean section that was listed as a contributing factor to the mother’s death on her death certificate); see also, George Annas, Foreclosing the Use of Force: A.C. Reversed, Hastings Ctr. Rep., July/Aug. 1990, at 27.
13 Pemberton v. Tallahassee Mem’l Reg’l Med. Ctr., 66 F. Supp. 2d 1247 (N.D. Fla. 1999); Presentation by Laura Pemberton at the National Summit to Ensure the Health and Humanity of Pregnant and Birthing Women, held in Atlanta, Georgia January 18-21 (2007), available at http://vimeo.com/4895023.
14 E.g., State v. Geiser, 763 N.W.2d 469 (N.D. 2009); Kilmon v. State, 905 A.2d 306 (Md. 2006); State v. Aiwohi, 123 P.3d 1210 (Haw. 2005); Whitner v. State, 492 S.E.2d 777 (S.C. 1997); Sheriff, Washoe County v. Encoe, 885 P.2d 596 (Nev. 1994); Johnson v. State, 602 So. 2d 1288 (Fla. 1992); see also Lynn Paltrow et. al, Criminal Prosecutions Against Pregnant Women (ACLU / Reprod. Freedom Project 1992).
15 Ferguson v. City of Charleston, 532 U.S. 67 (2001); Ferguson v. City of Charleston, 308 F.3d 380 (4th Cir. 2002) (remand); Dorothy Roberts, Killing the Black Body: Race, Reproduction, and the Meaning of Liberty 164-67 (1997); Laura E. Gomez, Misconceiving Mothers: Legislators, Prosecutors, and the Politics of Prenatal Drug Exposure (1997).
16 Lisa Sink, Prosecutors Seek to Protect Fetus of Jailed Woman: Arrested For Repeat Drunken Driving, She Hasn’t Agreed to Treatment, Milwaukee J. & Sentinel, Aug. 28, 1998, at 1 (in explaining why he opposed bail, District Attorney Paul Bucher said “Our concern is for the safety of the fetus and the community[.]”).
Lynn M. Paltrow, Melissa Rowland and the Rights of Pregnant Women, 104 Obstetrics & Gynecology 1234 (2004).
18 Reporter’s Transcript, People v. Stewart, No. M508197 (Cal. Mun. Ct. San Diego County Feb. 26, 1987) (transcript of hearing granting demurrer of indictment charging Pamela Rae Stewart with failing to support a child. According to the court, one theory that the prosecution relied upon was “that she failed to seek prompt medical attention when she experienced bleeding.”); Debra Cassens Moss, Is Ignoring M.D. Criminal? California Case Raises Questions of Women’s Duties During Pregnancy, A.B.A. J., Jan. 1, 1987, at 23 (noting Ms. Stewart was charged for “not doing what her doctor told her to do[.]”); see also Angela Bonavoglia, The Ordeal of Pamela Rae Stewart, Ms., Aug. 1987, at 92.
19 In re Unborn Child of Starks, No. 93,606 (Okla. Sept. 23, 1999); Transcript of Jury Trial, In re Unborn Child of Starks, No. JF990127 (Okla. Dist. Ct. Rogers County Nov. 24, 1999) (among the allegations of neglect, “she was in this environment that contained vapors and chemicals and other toxic substances that could not have been healthy for her unborn child or herself or anybody else in that residence.”).
20 Findings and Orders, In re Unborn Child Corneau, No. CP-00-A-0022 (Mass. Juv. Ct. Attleboro Div. Aug. 29, 2000) (finding Rebecca Corneau in contempt of court and ordering that she be held in a women’s prison until she gave birth because she refused to comply with a court-ordered prenatal exam); see also Ellen Goodman, Editorial, Just How Far Can the State Go in Protecting an ‘Unborn’ Child?’, Boston Globe, Sept. 10, 2000, at F7; Fetus Dispute Brings Wider Issue to Fore, Boston Globe, Sept. 10, 2000, at B1.
21 Transcript of Presentence Conference and Sentencing Proceedings, United States v. Tuleh, No. 09-19-B-W (D. Me. May 14, 2009). See also Judy Harrison, Judge Jails Woman Until Baby Is Born: HIV-Positive Diagnosis Spurs Extended Sentence, Bangor Daily News, June 3, 2009.
22 E.g., State v. McKnight, 576 S.E.2d 168 (S.C. 2003); McKnight v. State, 661 S.E.2d 354 (S.C. 2008); Gabrielle Maple, Miscarriage Proof Frees Woman; She Faces Charges of Killing Her Baby, Times-Picayune (New Orleans), Aug. 18, 2004 (Michelle Greenup was charged with homicide when she lost her pregnancy. Prosecutors later dropped the charges when medical evidence proved she had a miscarriage).
23 See Int’l Union v. Johnson Controls, 499 U.S. 187 (1991); Cynthia R. Daniels, At Women’s Expense: State Power & the Politics of Fetal Rights (1993); Rachel Roth, Making Women Pay: The Hidden Costs of Fetal Rights (2000).
24 Stallman v. Youngquist, 531 N.E.2d 355, 359-61 (Ill. 1988) (refusing to recognize the tort of maternal prenatal negligence, holding that granting fetuses legal rights in this manner “would involve an unprecedented intrusion into the privacy and autonomy of the [state’s female] citizens”).
25 E.g., In re J.D.S., 864 So.2d 534 (Fla. 2004); see also Susan Goldberg, Of Gametes and Guardians: The Impropriety of Appointing Guardians Ad Litem for Fetuses and Embryos, 66 Wash. L. Rev. 503 (1991).
26 Gilda Sedgh et al., Induced Abortion: Estimated Rates and Trends Worldwide, 370 Lancet 1338 (2007).
27 Ctr. for Disease Control & Prevention, Recommendations to Improve Preconception Health and Health Care – United States: A Report of the CDC/ATSDR Preconception Care Work Group and the Select Panel on Preconception Care, 55 (No. RR06) Morbidity & Mortality Weekly Rep., (Reports and Recommendations) 2 (Apr. 21, 2006), available at http://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/PDF/rr/rr5506.pdf.
Today the Women's Media Center featured a biting NAPW 해외사이트 순위about a federal law entitled the "Unborn Child Pain Awareness Act." This WMC Commentary by Lynn M. Paltrow: A Modest Proposal or Why I Support the Full Unborn Child Pain Awareness Act discusses one of the many disturbing bills pending in Congress.

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