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- All Subjects: Law
- Creators: Maienschein, Jane
- Resource Type: Text
Description
The Dynamic Landscape of Abortion Law in the United States explores the ways abortion laws have changed in the United States over the course of US history. Abortion laws in the US have historically been fluid, changing in ways both big and small. Those changes can occur after advances in science, changes in understanding, or changes in public opinion. And there have been various periods in the history of the US where tolerance abortion waxed or waned, and common law reflected those attitudes. Roe v. Wade was a pivotal moment in the history of abortion law that accomplished much in the way of broadening women's access to abortions. But Roe v. Wade was not the beginning or the end of the fight for abortion rights in the US. There were legal abortions prior to Roe v. Wade and illegal abortions after. Roe v. Wade granted that women had a constitutional right to have an abortion but the ruling left the boundaries of that right somewhat undefined and most courtroom battles over abortion laws are fought over where a woman's right to an abortion ends and a States right to regulate and protect fetal life begin. Much change has occurred in abortion laws over the past 50 years, this thesis tracks those changes principally through Supreme Court Cases, such as United States v. Milan Vuitch, Roe v. Wade, and Gonzales v. Planned Parenthood among others. The landscape of abortion law in the US continues to shift today, as recently as 2017 with Plowman v. FMCH cases were being heard in courts that wrought subtle yet important changes in abortion law.
ContributorsHigginbotham, Victoria Ashliegh (Author) / Maienschein, Jane (Thesis director) / Abboud, Alexis (Committee member) / Abboud, Carolina (Committee member) / School of Life Sciences (Contributor) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor)
Created2018-05
Description
Disabled people have historically lacked legal protection and often faced discrimination in healthcare, reproductive rights, education, and more despite being the largest minority group in the United States. One of the most common ways that American disability activists have advocated for their rights is by challenging discriminatory behavior or regulations in court and advocating for policy change in local, state, and federal governments. As a result, understanding the relationships between legislation and the judicial processes by which American judges approach disability discrimination is crucial to protecting and expanding the rights of disabled Americans. This study analyzes five American disability rights cases from the last fifty years as well as two foundational pieces of federal legislation, the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) and the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA). I conducted this research as a member of the Embryo Project, where I wrote and peer-reviewed articles for the Embryo Project Encyclopedia, which is an online open-access resource for topics relating to reproduction, embryology, and development. In my articles, I summarize the litigation and holdings of each case with additional contextualization in science and society. The passage of the ADA represents a watershed moment after which the American judiciary observed the rights of the disabled as legislatively codified rather than only subject to interpretations of the Constitution. Since laws can be repealed far more easily than constitutional amendments, precedent from legislative interpretation is only as secure as the law on which it is based. Lawmakers must understand the need to craft legislation with reduced textual ambiguity to prevent undermining the original intent of the law. With the recent overturning of long-standing precedent and the composition of the Supreme Court as of 2023, disability rights are on fragile footing. Judicial behavior in response to disability legislation has historically narrowed the protections offered by federal statute and failed to bolster disability rights by refusing to base decisions on Constitutional protections.
ContributorsRoss, Nathaniel (Author) / Maienschein, Jane (Thesis advisor) / Yudell, Michael (Committee member) / Compton, Carolyn (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2023
Description
Abortion is a controversial topic internationally. Most current debates about abortion concern when, if at all, it should be legal. However, researchers have shown many times that after an abortion ban, maternal and infant mortalities rise significantly, as women who seek out abortions do so regardless of abortion legality. So, is it possible to reduce abortions in a population without delegalizing abortion and, if so, how? Why do some countries have higher abortion rates than others in the presence of the same law?This dissertation answers both questions. First, I present historical evidence in the first comprehensive comparative analysis of all 15 post-Soviet countries, which have very similar abortion laws originating from the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR). Second, I use those findings to build the first agent-based model (ABM) of unintended pregnancies in a hypothetical artificial population.
USSR was the only country in the world to complete its demographic transition through abortion instead of modern contraception, and the Soviet government passed the first law in the world to allow abortion upon request in 1920. After the USSR dissolution in 1991, post-Soviet countries maintained very similar abortion laws, but had very different abortion rates for most years. Analysis of fertility data from post-Soviet countries shows that the prevalence of some specific contraceptive methods, namely the rhythm method (r = 0.82), oral pill (r = 0.56), and male condom (r = 0.51) are most strongly correlated with high abortion rates, and that sex education is a factor that reduces the rates in otherwise similar countries (p = 0.02).
The ABM shows that even basic sex education results in fewer abortions than no sex education or abstinence-based sex education (p < 0.01). In scenarios without sex education, basic quality of post-abortion contraceptive counseling (PACC) is better than no PACC or low-quality PACC at reducing abortions (p < 0.01). Still, the higher the quality of sex education or PACC, the fewer abortions in the artificial population. The ABM is adaptive and policy makers can use it as a decision-support tool to make evidence-based policy decisions regarding abortion, and, potentially, other sociobiological phenomena with some adjustments to the code.
ContributorsZiganshina Lienhard, Dina A. (Author) / Maienschein, Jane (Thesis advisor) / Gaughan, Monica (Thesis advisor) / Laubichler, Manfred (Committee member) / Ellison, Karin (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2023
Description
This thesis examines the history of abortion law in Italy and the current status of abortion access, finding that ambiguities in legal wording significantly contribute to the current inaccessibility of abortion throughout the country. Lack of clarity regarding conscientious objection has lead to widespread rates of objection across Italy, limiting women's ability to find providers willing to perform the service. In addition, because the law does not expressly state what procedures are included under conscientious objection, women may be denied pre- or post-abortion care and face difficulties finding treatment for miscarriages. Finally, I explore potential avenues to ameliorate the current status of abortion access in Italy.
ContributorsJohnson, Olivia (Author) / Maienschein, Jane (Thesis director) / Ziganshina, Dina (Committee member) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor) / Historical, Philosophical & Religious Studies, Sch (Contributor) / Department of English (Contributor) / School of International Letters and Cultures (Contributor)
Created2023-05
Description
Intake of alcohol, tobacco, and illicit substances such as marijuana and methamphetamine during pregnancy can have significant deleterious effects on a developing fetus and the resulting infant. The existence of substance-exposed newborns also has negative impacts on society as a whole; these include financial burdens placed on taxpayers and the additional time and resources required by health care professionals, social workers, and law enforcement authorities to properly care for such infants. Existing literature show a strong correlation between prenatal care and improved birth outcomes, including abstinence from or reduction of prenatal substance abuse. The Health Start Program in the state of Arizona attempts to mitigate the incidence of substance-exposed newborns, among other goals, by employing community health workers who identify high-risk pregnant and postpartum women, inform these women about how to receive prenatal care services, educate them on appropriate prenatal and neonatal care, and provide program and referral services to both pregnant and postpartum women. Community health workers interact directly with women most at-risk for prenatal substance abuse and should be well-versed in the understanding of the complex issues related to substance-exposed newborns. In an attempt to discover, analyze, and compile those complex issues with which community health workers should be knowledgeable, this project explores existing federal regulations regarding substance-exposed newborns, compares Arizona’s regulations to Minnesota’s, Virginia’s, and Washington’s, and analyzes prevailing literature in the field about the various implications associated with screening and reporting substance-exposed newborns to law enforcement authorities. After an intensive literature review, this project concludes that the Health Start Program needs a comprehensive resource document which enumerates federal and select state policies, landmark cases involving substance-abusing pregnant women and the precedence set by each, and recommendations from medical and public health experts. The document should also provide clear guidelines by which each stakeholder should abide and why, and recommend potential best practices the state of Arizona could adopt into law based on other state policies which have proven to be effective.
ContributorsTantibanchachai, Chanapa (Author) / Maienschein, Jane (Thesis advisor) / Ellison, Karin (Thesis advisor) / Coursen, Cristi (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2015
Description
The 1973 Supreme Court case Roe v. Wade was a significant event in the story of fetal personhood—the story of whether embryos and fetuses are legal persons. Roe legalized abortion care in the United States (US). However, the story of fetal personhood began long before the 1970s. People have been talking about embryos, fetuses, and their status in science, the law, and society for centuries. I studied the history of fetal personhood in the United States, tracing its origins from Ancient Rome and Medieval England to its first appearance in a US courtroom in 1884 and then to the Supreme Court’s decision in 1973.
But this isn’t a history of events—of names and dates and typical details. This is a history of words. In the twenty-first century, words used to discuss embryos and fetuses are split. Some people use humanizing language like “unborn children” and “human life.” Others use technical words like “embryos” and “fetuses.” I studied what words people used historically. I charted how words moved from science to the public to the law, and how they impacted court rulings on fetal personhood.
The use of certain words nudged courts to grant additional rights to embryos and fetuses. In the 1960s, writers began describing the science of development, using words like “unborn child” and humanizing descriptions to make embryos and fetuses seem like people already born. That helped build an idea of embryos and fetuses as having “life” before birth. When people began asking courts to legalize abortion care in the 1970s, attorneys on the opposite side argued that embryos and fetuses were “human life,” and that that “life” began at conception.
In those cases, “life” was biologically defined as when sperm fertilized egg, but it was on that biological definition “life” that judges improperly rested their legal rulings that embryos and fetuses were “potential human life” states had a duty to protect. It wasn’t legal personhood, but it was a legal status that let states pass laws restricting abortion care and punishing pregnant people for their behavior, trends that threaten people’s lives and autonomy in the twenty-first century.
But this isn’t a history of events—of names and dates and typical details. This is a history of words. In the twenty-first century, words used to discuss embryos and fetuses are split. Some people use humanizing language like “unborn children” and “human life.” Others use technical words like “embryos” and “fetuses.” I studied what words people used historically. I charted how words moved from science to the public to the law, and how they impacted court rulings on fetal personhood.
The use of certain words nudged courts to grant additional rights to embryos and fetuses. In the 1960s, writers began describing the science of development, using words like “unborn child” and humanizing descriptions to make embryos and fetuses seem like people already born. That helped build an idea of embryos and fetuses as having “life” before birth. When people began asking courts to legalize abortion care in the 1970s, attorneys on the opposite side argued that embryos and fetuses were “human life,” and that that “life” began at conception.
In those cases, “life” was biologically defined as when sperm fertilized egg, but it was on that biological definition “life” that judges improperly rested their legal rulings that embryos and fetuses were “potential human life” states had a duty to protect. It wasn’t legal personhood, but it was a legal status that let states pass laws restricting abortion care and punishing pregnant people for their behavior, trends that threaten people’s lives and autonomy in the twenty-first century.
ContributorsAbboud, Carolina (Author) / Maienschein, Jane (Thesis advisor) / Justice, George (Committee member) / Marchant, Gary (Committee member) / Pyne, Stephen (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2020