Über die Autorin bzw. den Autor

N. E. H. Hull is distinguished professor of law at Rutgers Law School. Hull and Peter Hoffer have collaborated on several books and have written or edited more than two dozen books between them.

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This book compiles a balanced selection of important documents--legal briefs, oral arguments, court opinions, statutes, newspaper reports, opinion pieces, contemporary essays--relating to debates over abortion in the U.S. over the past 200 years.

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This book compiles a balanced selection of important documents--legal briefs, oral arguments, court opinions, statutes, newspaper reports, opinion pieces, contemporary essays--relating to debates over abortion in the U.S. over the past 200 years.

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The Abortion Rights Controversy in America

The University of North Carolina Press

Contents

Introduction1 Abortion Becomes a CrimeElizabeth Cady Stanton, "Address to the Seneca Falls Convention" (1848)Horace Mann, Tenth Annual Report of the Board of Education Together with the Tenth Annual Report of the Secretary of the Board (1847)"French Lunar Pills" advertisement, Boston Daily Times (1845)Connecticut General Statutes, Title 22 (1821)Commonwealth v. Parker (1845)Horatio Storer, Why Not?: A Book for Every Woman (1868)People v. Van Zile (1894)Tonnahill v. State (1919)An Act for the Suppression of Trade in, and Circulation of, Obscene Literature and Articles of Immoral Use (1873)Bates v. U.S. (1881)Bours v. U.S. (1915)2 Birth Control and the Abortion Law Reform MovementTheodore Roosevelt, "On American Motherhood" (1905)Lydia Kingsmill Commander, "Has the Small Family Become an American Ideal?" (1904)Roswell H. Johnson, "The Birth Rate of College Women" (1917)Dorothy Dunbar Bromley, "This Question of Birth Control" (1929)Margaret Sanger, Autobiography (1938)Norman Thomas, "Some Objections to Birth Control Considered" (1926)"Up to the Doctors" (1925)Mary Ware Dennett, Birth Control Laws (1926)"Abortions in the U.S.A." (1936)U.S. v. One Package (1936)Rigine K. Stix and Dorothy G. Wiehl, "Abortion and the Public Health" (1938)American Law Institute, Model Penal Code, section 230.3, Abortion (1962)Georgia Sessions Laws, no. 130 (1876)Revised Criminal Code of Georgia, chapter 26-12, Abortion (1968)William O. Douglas, opinion in Griswold v. Connecticut (1965)Arthur Goldberg, opinion in Griswold3 The "Right" to an AbortionNOW, "Statement of Purpose" (1966)Betty Friedan, The Feminine Mystique (1962)Shirley Chisholm, Unbought and Unbossed (1970)Texas Penal Code, Title 15, chapter 9 (1970)Redman v. State (1955)Roy Lucas, "Federal Constitutional Limitations on the Enforcement and Administration of State Abortion Statutes" (1968)Roe v. Wade (1970)Appellants' brief in Roe (1971)Appellees' brief in RoeCalifornia Committee to Legalize Abortion et al. brief in RoeAmericans United for Life brief in Roe4 Roe v. Wade before the High CourtSarah Weddington, oral argument in Roe v. Wade (1971)Jay Floyd, oral argument on behalf of appellee in RoeSarah Weddington, A Question of ChoiceSarah Weddington, oral argument in Roe (1972)The Supreme Court in Conference, 1940-1985 (2001), December 16, 1971, and October 13, 1972, conferencesAMA House of Delegates, Proceedings (1970)Harry Blackmun, opinion in Roe (1973)William Rehnquist, opinion in RoeHarry Blackmun, opinion in Doe v. Bolton (1973)Byron White, opinion in Doe5 Regulating and Funding AbortionsJohn Hart Ely, "The Wages of Crying Wolf: A Comment on Roe v. Wade" (1973)Ruth Bader Ginsberg, "Some Thoughts on Autonomy and Equality in Relation to Roe v. Wade" (1985)"An Act relating to Abortion with Penalty Provisions and Emergency Clause" (1974)Harry Blackmun, opinion in Planned Parenthood of Central Missouri v. Danforth (1976)Byron White, opinion in Danforth"The Hyde Amendment" (1976)Potter Stewart, opinion in Harris v. McRae (1980)William Brennan, Thurgood Marshall, and John Paul Stevens, opinion in HarrisAkron (Ohio) Ordinance no. 160-1978Lewis Powell, opinion in Akron v. Reproductive Health (1983)Sandra Day O'Connor, opinion in AkronHarry Blackmun, opinion in Thornburgh v. College of Obstetricians (1986)Byron White, opinion in Thornburgh6 Nineteen Eighty-Nine: A Year of DecisionBrief of Catholics for Free Choice et al. in Webster v. Reproductive Health Services (1989)Brief of Feminists for Life of America et al. in WebsterBrief of members of Congress in support of appellees in WebsterBrief of members of Congress in support of appellants in WebsterWilliam Rehnquist, opinion in WebsterSandra Day O'Connor, opinion in WebsterAntonin Scalia, opinion in WebsterHarry Blackmun, opinion in WebsterJohn Paul Stevens, opinion in WebsterTom Wicker, "Abortion and the G.O.P." (1989)Elaine Ciulla Kamarck, "The Abortion Dilemma: The Pols Shift with the Wind as the Abortion Fight Evolves" (1989)Barbara Brotman, "Voters Firmly in Middle on Key Abortion Issues" (1989)Eileen McNamara, "Taking Stock of the Struggle: Abortion-An American Divide" (1989)7 Regulation and Controversy in the Post-Webster EraAnthony Kennedy, opinion in Planned Parenthood v. Casey (1992)David Souter, opinion in CaseySandra Day O'Connor, opinion in CaseyHarry Blackmun, opinion in CaseyWilliam Rehnquist, opinion in CaseyAntonin Scalia, opinion in CaseyCass Sunstein, "Neutrality in Constitutional Law" (1992)Kristina M. Mentone, "When Equal Protection Fails: How the Equal Protection Justification for Abortion Undercuts the Struggle for Equality in the Workplace" (2002)Neal Devins, "Through the Looking Glass: What Abortion Teaches Us about American Politics" (1994)Stephen Breyer, opinion in Stenberg v. Carhart (2000)Sandra Day O'Connor, opinion in StenbergRuth Bader Ginsburg, opinion in StenbergAntonin Scalia, opinion in StenbergAnthony Kennedy, opinion in Stenberg8 Freedom of Speech versus Free Access to ClinicsAntonin Scalia, opinion in Bray v. Alexandria Women's Health Clinic (1993)David Souter, opinion in BrayJohn Paul Stevens, opinion in BrayWilliam Rehnquist, opinion in NOW v. Scheidler (1994)Opening statements, Hearings before the Subcommittee on Crime and Criminal Justice of the Committee on the Judiciary, House of Representatives, April 1, 1993 (1994)Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances Act (1994)William Rehnquist, opinion in Madsen v. Women's Health Center (1994)Antonin Scalia, opinion in MadsenConclusionRecommended Reading

Chapter One

Although the controversy over Roe v. Wade has made it seem that the last quarter of the twentieth century is the most important historical era for understanding abortion and abortion rights in America, the law of abortion changed just as dramatically in the first half of the nineteenth century in our country as in the last fifty years. In the formative era of our nation's history, both women's roles in reproduction and the regulation of reproduction became the object of intense public scrutiny. For complex reasons, many states and then the federal government began passing laws that made abortion a crime. By the end of the century, performing or attempting to perform an abortion was punishable in almost all states by fines and imprisonment. Sending abortifacients or abortion information through the mails was also punishable under federal and state law.

Until the nineteenth century, bearing and birthing children primarily involved women, and within the community of women, it was a private affair. Women helped other women through the rigors of pregnancy, and midwives delivered the infant. This is not to say that fathers and husbands were uninterested in children. In Anglo-American law, children were the possession of the fathers, and last names, inheritance, and status passed through the male line. But fathers and husbands ordinarily did not invade the private world of pregnant women. By the same token, although the state took an active interest in general matters of population size and growth, as well as the ethnic composition of the citizenry, governments did not intrude into the reproductive decisions of families.

In the nineteenth century, two new and powerful currents of thinking about domestic life and women's roles in society came to compete with each other, and abortion law became one focal point of the struggle. On the one hand, it was a century of individualistic and...