Reproduction - Historical Background, Restricting Antiabortion Protests, Birth Control, Abortion, Pregnancy And Medical Developments, Reproductive Hazards In The Workplace
court rights legal supreme
A woman's right to determine whether she will give birth was not legally recognized until the 1960s and 1970s, when U.S. Supreme Court decisions established that right. Until that time, women in the United States were denied access to BIRTH CONTROL and to legal abortions by state criminal laws. Since the 1970s, there has been ongoing controversy over legalized ABORTION, with the Supreme Court allowing states to impose restrictions on obtaining the procedure. In addition, medical science has developed techniques of ARTIFICIAL INSEMINATION and in vitro fertilization that enable pregnancy. These advances, in turn, have created opportunities for SURROGATE MOTHERHOOD, opening up even more legal issues dealing with reproductive rights. Because of the cultural importance placed on motherhood and the intersection of religious beliefs and public policy, the debate over reproductive rights has been contentious.
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State legislatures passed laws in the first half of the nineteenth century that adopted the quickening rule, and a few states allowed abortion after quickening to save the life of the mother. Abortions increased markedly in the 1850s and 1860s, especially among middle-class white women. The Court did strike down a provision concerning floating buffer zones. These zones, which prohibited demonstrat…
The Court did strike down a provision concerning floating buffer zones. These zones, which prohibited demonstrations within 15 feet of any person or vehicle seeking access to or leaving abortion facilities, "burdened more speech than was necessary" to serve the government interests cited in support of fixed zones. Thus, protestors were free to approach persons outside the 15-foot fix…
Renewed legal challenges to restrictive state laws began in the 1950s. By 1960, almost every state had legalized birth control. Nevertheless, laws remained on the books that prevented the distribution of birth control information and contraceptives. A specific target was the 1879 Connecticut little Comstock law that made the sale and possession of birth control devices a misdemeanor. The law also …
The establishment in Eisenstadt of an individual's right to privacy soon had dramatic implications for state laws that criminalized abortions. Until the 1960s, abortion was illegal in every state, except to save the mother's life. The growth of the modern feminist movement in the 1960s led to calls for the legalization of abortion, and many state legislatures began to amend their law…
Artificial insemination, in vitro fertilization, and embryo transplants have created new opportunities for conceiving children. With artificial insemination, sperm from a donor is introduced into the vagina or through the cervix of a woman by any method other than sexual inter-course. Originally this technique was used when a husband was sterile or impotent, but it is now available to women regard…
"Genetics, Reproduction, and the Law." 1999. Trial 35 (July). Hollinger, Joan Heifetz. 1985. "From Coitus to Commerce: Legal and Social Consequences of Noncoital Reproduction." University of Michigan Journal of Law Reform 18 (summer). "In re Baby M" (colloquy). 1988. Georgetown Law Journal 76 (June). "In re Baby M" (symposium). 1988. Seton Ha…
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