Breaking the Abortion Deadlock

Breaking the Abortion Deadlock PDF Author: Eileen McDonagh
Publisher: Oxford University Press
ISBN: 019535799X
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 295

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Book Description
For over twenty years the abortion debate has raged, with each side entrenched in unyielding positions. This book breaks the impasse by using pro-life premises to reach pro-choice conclusions. While it is commonly assumed that state protection of the fetus as a form of human life undermines women's reproductive rights, McDonagh instead illuminates how it is exactly such state protection of the fetus that strengthens, rather than weakens, not only women's right to an abortion, but even more significantly, women's ability to call on the state for abortion funding. McDonagh's approach, by bridging the divide between pro-life and pro-choice advocates, revolutionizes the abortion debate in a way that opens up a whole new avenue for resolving the abortion conflict and advancing women's rights. McDonagh reframes the abortion debate by locating the missing piece of the puzzle: the fetus as the cause of pregnancy. After exposing the myths on this subject, her exacting analysis presents the scientific and legal evidence that the ultimate source of pregnancy is the fetus. The central issue then becomes what the fetus, as an active agent, does to a woman's body during pregnancy, whether that pregnancy is wanted or not. McDonagh graphically describes the massive changes produced by the fetus when it takes over a woman's body. As such, pregnancy is best depicted not as a condition that women have a right to choose but rather as a condition to which they must have a right to consent. Abortion, therefore, does not rest on the intensely debated principle, stated in Roe, that women have a right to be free from state interference when choosing privately what to do with their own bodies. Instead, as McDonagh's book explains, abortion rights flow inevitably from women's more established right to consent to what another agent does to their body. Specifically, women have a right to resist an unwanted intrusion by a fetus as well as to receive help from the state to stop such an intrusion. Moving abortion rights from choice to consent has broad legal and cultural ramifications tapping into the very cornerstone of the American political system: consent. McDonagh unravels the consequences of extending to pregnant women the same guarantees of bodily integrity and liberty possessed by others in our society. Specifically, she shows why a woman who does not consent to be made pregnant by a fetus, not only has a right to terminate pregnancy, but why the state violates constitutional due process and equal protection guarantees when it fails to provide her with the same protections against nonconsensual intrusions by a fetus as it provides against nonconsensual intrusions by other parties. This book pivotally strengthens, therefore, not only women's right to abortion but also abortion funding. By providing new grounds both for the public funding of abortion and for the removal of government restrictions on abortions, it lays the foundation for enhancing women's rights through major policy changes in legislatures and courts.

Breaking the Abortion Deadlock

Breaking the Abortion Deadlock PDF Author: Eileen McDonagh
Publisher: Oxford University Press
ISBN: 019535799X
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 295

Get Book Here

Book Description
For over twenty years the abortion debate has raged, with each side entrenched in unyielding positions. This book breaks the impasse by using pro-life premises to reach pro-choice conclusions. While it is commonly assumed that state protection of the fetus as a form of human life undermines women's reproductive rights, McDonagh instead illuminates how it is exactly such state protection of the fetus that strengthens, rather than weakens, not only women's right to an abortion, but even more significantly, women's ability to call on the state for abortion funding. McDonagh's approach, by bridging the divide between pro-life and pro-choice advocates, revolutionizes the abortion debate in a way that opens up a whole new avenue for resolving the abortion conflict and advancing women's rights. McDonagh reframes the abortion debate by locating the missing piece of the puzzle: the fetus as the cause of pregnancy. After exposing the myths on this subject, her exacting analysis presents the scientific and legal evidence that the ultimate source of pregnancy is the fetus. The central issue then becomes what the fetus, as an active agent, does to a woman's body during pregnancy, whether that pregnancy is wanted or not. McDonagh graphically describes the massive changes produced by the fetus when it takes over a woman's body. As such, pregnancy is best depicted not as a condition that women have a right to choose but rather as a condition to which they must have a right to consent. Abortion, therefore, does not rest on the intensely debated principle, stated in Roe, that women have a right to be free from state interference when choosing privately what to do with their own bodies. Instead, as McDonagh's book explains, abortion rights flow inevitably from women's more established right to consent to what another agent does to their body. Specifically, women have a right to resist an unwanted intrusion by a fetus as well as to receive help from the state to stop such an intrusion. Moving abortion rights from choice to consent has broad legal and cultural ramifications tapping into the very cornerstone of the American political system: consent. McDonagh unravels the consequences of extending to pregnant women the same guarantees of bodily integrity and liberty possessed by others in our society. Specifically, she shows why a woman who does not consent to be made pregnant by a fetus, not only has a right to terminate pregnancy, but why the state violates constitutional due process and equal protection guarantees when it fails to provide her with the same protections against nonconsensual intrusions by a fetus as it provides against nonconsensual intrusions by other parties. This book pivotally strengthens, therefore, not only women's right to abortion but also abortion funding. By providing new grounds both for the public funding of abortion and for the removal of government restrictions on abortions, it lays the foundation for enhancing women's rights through major policy changes in legislatures and courts.

Thinking Critically About Abortion

Thinking Critically About Abortion PDF Author: Nathan Nobis
Publisher: Open Philosophy Press
ISBN: 0578532638
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 77

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Book Description
This book introduces readers to the many arguments and controversies concerning abortion. While it argues for ethical and legal positions on the issues, it focuses on how to think about the issues, not just what to think about them. It is an ideal resource to improve your understanding of what people think, why they think that and whether their (and your) arguments are good or bad, and why. It's ideal for classroom use, discussion groups, organizational learning, and personal reading. From the Preface To many people, abortion is an issue for which discussions and debates are frustrating and fruitless: it seems like no progress will ever be made towards any understanding, much less resolution or even compromise. Judgments like these, however, are premature because some basic techniques from critical thinking, such as carefully defining words and testing definitions, stating the full structure of arguments so each step of the reasoning can be examined, and comparing the strengths and weaknesses of different explanations can help us make progress towards these goals. When emotions run high, we sometimes need to step back and use a passion for calm, cool, critical thinking. This helps us better understand the positions and arguments of people who see things differently from us, as well as our own positions and arguments. And we can use critical thinking skills help to try to figure out which positions are best, in terms of being supported by good arguments: after all, we might have much to learn from other people, sometimes that our own views should change, for the better. Here we use basic critical thinking skills to argue that abortion is typically not morally wrong. We begin with less morally-controversial claims: adults, children and babies are wrong to kill and wrong to kill, fundamentally, because they, we, are conscious, aware and have feelings. We argue that since early fetuses entirely lack these characteristics, they are not inherently wrong to kill and so most abortions are not morally wrong, since most abortions are done early in pregnancy, before consciousness and feeling develop in the fetus. Furthermore, since the right to life is not the right to someone else’s body, fetuses might not have the right to the pregnant woman’s body—which she has the right to—and so she has the right to not allow the fetus use of her body. This further justifies abortion, at least until technology allows for the removal of fetuses to other wombs. Since morally permissible actions should be legal, abortions should be legal: it is an injustice to criminalize actions that are not wrong. In the course of arguing for these claims, we: 1. discuss how to best define abortion; 2. dismiss many common “question-begging” arguments that merely assume their conclusions, instead of giving genuine reasons for them; 3. refute some often-heard “everyday arguments” about abortion, on all sides; 4. explain why the most influential philosophical arguments against abortion are unsuccessful; 5. provide some positive arguments that at least early abortions are not wrong; 6. briefly discuss the ethics and legality of later abortions, and more. This essay is not a “how to win an argument” piece or a tract or any kind of apologetics. It is not designed to help anyone “win” debates: everybody “wins” on this issue when we calmly and respectfully engage arguments with care, charity, honesty and humility. This book is merely a reasoned, systematic introduction to the issues that we hope models these skills and virtues. Its discussion should not be taken as absolute “proof” of anything: much more needs to be understood and carefully discussed—always.

Feminist Interpretations of Thomas Hobbes

Feminist Interpretations of Thomas Hobbes PDF Author: Nancy J. Hirschmann
Publisher: Penn State Press
ISBN: 0271069104
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 412

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Book Description
Feminist Interpretations of Thomas Hobbes features the work of feminist scholars who are centrally engaged with Hobbes’s ideas and texts and who view Hobbes as an important touchstone in modern political thought. Bringing together scholars from the disciplines of philosophy, history, political theory, and English literature who embrace diverse theoretical and philosophical approaches and a range of feminist perspectives, this interdisciplinary collection aims to appeal to an audience of Hobbes scholars and nonspecialists alike. As a theorist whose trademark is a compelling argument for absolute sovereignty, Hobbes may seem initially to have little to offer twenty-first-century feminist thought. Yet, as the contributors to this collection demonstrate, Hobbesian political thought provides fertile ground for feminist inquiry. Indeed, in engaging Hobbes, feminist theory engages with what is perhaps the clearest and most influential articulation of the foundational concepts and ideas associated with modernity: freedom, equality, human nature, authority, consent, coercion, political obligation, and citizenship. Aside from the editors, the contributors are Joanne Boucher, Karen Detlefsen, Karen Green, Wendy Gunther-Canada, Jane S. Jaquette, S. A. Lloyd, Su Fang Ng, Carole Pateman, Gordon Schochet, Quentin Skinner, and Susanne Sreedhar.

Encyclopedia of American Civil Liberties

Encyclopedia of American Civil Liberties PDF Author: Paul Finkelman
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1135947058
Category : Law
Languages : en
Pages : 2194

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Book Description
This Encyclopedia on American history and law is the first devoted to examining the issues of civil liberties and their relevance to major current events while providing a historical context and a philosophical discussion of the evolution of civil liberties. Coverage includes the traditional civil liberties: freedom of speech, press, religion, assembly, and petition. In addition, it also covers concerns such as privacy, the rights of the accused, and national security. Alphabetically organized for ease of access, the articles range in length from 250 words for a brief biography to 5,000 words for in-depth analyses. Entries are organized around the following themes: organizations and government bodies legislation and legislative action, statutes, and acts historical overviews biographies cases themes, issues, concepts, and events. The Encyclopedia of American Civil Liberties is an essential reference for students and researchers as well as for the general reader to help better understand the world we live in today.

Contemporary Debates in Applied Ethics

Contemporary Debates in Applied Ethics PDF Author: Andrew I. Cohen
Publisher: John Wiley & Sons
ISBN: 1118479874
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 601

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Book Description
Now in an updated edition with fresh perspectives on high-profile ethical issues such as torture and same-sex marriage, this collection pairs cogently argued essays by leading philosophers with opposing views on fault-line public concerns. Revised and updated new edition with six new pairs of essays on prominent contemporary issues including torture and same-sex marriage, and a survey of theories of ethics by Stephen Darwall Leading philosophers tackle colleagues with opposing views in contrasting essays on core issues in applied ethics An ideal semester-length course text certain to generate vigorous discussion

Constitutional Law for a Changing America

Constitutional Law for a Changing America PDF Author: Lee Epstein
Publisher: CQ Press
ISBN: 1544391285
Category : Law
Languages : en
Pages : 753

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Book Description
Constitutional Law for a Changing America shows students how political factors influence judicial decisions and shape the development of constitutional law. Updated with additional material such as recent court rulings, more than 500 supplemental cases, and greater coverage of freedom of expression, the Eleventh Edition of this bestseller will develop students’ understanding of how the U.S. Constitution protects civil rights and liberties.

Reproductive Justice and the Catholic Church

Reproductive Justice and the Catholic Church PDF Author: Emily Reimer-Barry
Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield
ISBN: 1538182661
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 299

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Book Description
Pregnancy loss is profoundly complex, ambiguous, and alienating, but telling women who have procured abortions that they are murderers and sinners is not the best way forward. Magisterial teachings on abortion are too often presented as moral absolutes, when in fact moral absolutism distorts the rich wisdom of the Catholic intellectual tradition. This book initiates a new conversation about women’s experiences of miscarriage, stillbirth, and abortion, arguing that we need not approach these difficult life experiences in a simplistic way. Dr. Reimer-Barry argues that both the pro-life and pro-choice movements make important and valuable claims, yet each approach on its own is flawed. Drawing on the framework of reproductive justice together with Catholic social teaching, Dr. Reimer-Barry suggests a new way forward for abortion discourse that takes seriously the full human dignity of women and the intrinsic (though not absolute) value of prenatal life. She argues that instead of thinking of the Church as a moral teacher—with leaders in Rome or Washington, DC dictating to the consciences of the faithful—a better way to address the complexity of difficult pregnancy discernments would be to think of the Church as a community of support in the midst of and after difficult discernments; a community that seeks justice together and implements structural reforms while also providing spiritual care to those in need. What women deserve, is justice.

Constitutional Engagement in a Transnational Era

Constitutional Engagement in a Transnational Era PDF Author: Vicki Jackson
Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA
ISBN: 019993469X
Category : Law
Languages : en
Pages : 538

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Book Description
Constitutional Engagement in a Transnational Era explores how transnational phenomena affect our understanding of the role of constitutions and of courts in deciding constitutional cases. In it, Vicki Jackson looks at constitutional court decisions from around the world, and identifying postures of resistance, convergence or engagement with international and foreign law.

What Roe v. Wade Should Have Said

What Roe v. Wade Should Have Said PDF Author: Jack M. Balkin
Publisher: NYU Press
ISBN: 1479824453
Category : Law
Languages : en
Pages : 338

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Book Description
A unique introduction to the constitutional arguments for and against the right to abortion In January 1973, the Supreme Court’s opinion in Roe v. Wade struck down most of the country's abortion laws and held for the first time that the Constitution guarantees women the right to safe and legal abortions. Nearly five decades later, in 2022, the Court’s 5-4 decision in Dobbs v. Jackson Women's Health Organization overturned Roe and eliminated the constitutional right, stunning the nation. Instead of finally resolving the constitutional issues, Dobbs managed to bring new attention to them while sparking a debate about the Supreme Court’s legitimacy. Originally published in 2005, What Roe v. Wade Should Have Said asked eleven distinguished constitutional scholars to rewrite the opinions in this landmark case in light of thirty years’ experience but making use only of sources available at the time of the original decision. Offering the best arguments for and against the constitutional right to abortion, the contributors have produced a series of powerful essays that get to the heart of this fascinating case. In addition, Jack Balkin gives a detailed historical introduction that chronicles the Roe litigation—and the constitutional and political clashes that followed it—and explains the Dobbs decision and its aftermath.

Abortion and Social Responsibility

Abortion and Social Responsibility PDF Author: Laurie Shrage
Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA
ISBN: 9780195153095
Category : Law
Languages : en
Pages : 188

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Book Description
Shrage argues that Roe v Wade's regulatory scheme of a six-month time span for abortion on demand polarized the public and obscured alternatives with potentially broader support. She explores the origins of that scheme, then defends an alternate one--with a time span shorter than 6 months for non-therapeutic abortions--that could win broad support needed to make legal abortion services available to all women.