Marie Smith, wife of Congressman Chris Smith, runs a remarkable organization, the Parliamentary Network for Critical Issues (PNCI). PNCI coordinates efforts among members of democratically-elected legislatures – collectively known as parliamentarians – to advance respect for the inherent value, worth, and inviolable dignity of every human being from fertilization until natural death. The PNCI website […]
Category: Constitutionality
In an article that can be found on SSRN, Robin West, a prominent feminist law professor, evaluates Eileen McDonagh theory that the state funding of abortion facilitiates a woman’s right right to resist the non-consensual invasion, appropriation, and use of her physical body by an unwelcome fetus. West praises McDonagh’s theory as making the personhood […]
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The Death of Roe v. Wade
That is the title of a recent Slate piece by Dahlia Lithwick. See http://www.slate.com/id/2291596/ The piece has to be read to be be believed. Lithwick complains that Roe is no longer a binding precedent, because opponents and supporters of abortion rights don’t treat the case as the law of the land. The result she says is […]
See you the links below for discussion of the constitutionality of legislation banning abortion to prevent fetal pain. Paul Linton recently published an article in the Human Life Review, http://www.humanlifereview.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=125:the-problem-of-pain-legislation&catid=4:blog , arguing that laws such as Nebraska’s recently passed statute are misguided because such laws have little chance of being upheld in the courts. Mary Balch has […]
Here is a link to a LifeNews story on an encouraging ruling from a federal judge that held unconstitutional on First Amendment grounds a Baltimore law that targeted pregancy aid centers. http://www.lifenews.com/2011/01/28/judge-strikes-baltimore-law-targeting-pregnancy-centers/ On January 11, 2011, I posted a link to an article by Professor Mark Rienzi (from CUA law school) addressing this topic. http://uffl.org/blog/?p=432 This decision is […]
Many have complained that cases that involve abortion seem to be subject to a special set of rules–rules that have had the effect of advancing abortion rights. Mark Rienzi, who teaches law at Catholic University, takes up the question whether there is an abortion exception to the first amendment. His paper evaluates recent efforts to regulate speech about alternatives to abortion. His conclusion […]
Louisiana recently passed The Ultrasound Before Abortion Act, which requires ultrasounds before abortions are performed but doesn’t require that the woman view the ultrasound images. The Bioethics Defense Fund helped draft the law. For more information about the law, see http://bdfbuzz.wordpress.com/2010/08/10/ultrasound-bills-touted-in-wash-post-column/ On August 6, 2010, the law was challenged in federal court. For reaction to the lawsuit, see http://www.lifenews.com/state5330.html UPDATE: The […]
Clarke Forsythe’s book “Politics for the Greatest Good: The Case for Prudence in the Public Square” is worth reading. Here is the Amazon link. http://www.amazon.com/Politics-Greatest-Good-Prudence-Public/dp/0830829229 Clarke makes the case for pursuing incremental change, an approach that he has helped to implement in his role at Americans United for Life. A recent review of Clarke’s book by Michael New is […]
On August 4th, Kenya will hold a referendum to approve a new constitution. While Kenya needs a new constitution to address serious political problems, pro-abortion advocacy groups have hijacked the reform process and managed to insert provisions in the draft constitution that will lay the foundation for abortion-on-demand in this pro-life country. It is likely […]
There has been a lot of controversy about Elena Kagan’s testimony in her Supreme Court confirmation hearings as it relates to the issue of partial birth abortion. Americans United for Life has just released a powerful analysis of the whole matter. See http://www.aul.org/featured-images/Kagan-Ethics-Report.pdf Richard M.