reproductive choice - Free For All

January 21, 2008

Protecting Anti-Abortion Protests, Like them or Not
By Wendy Kaminer
By Wendy Kaminer

Last year, Governor Patrick signed a law mandating expanded no speech and no loitering zones around the entrances to abortion clinics; members of the general public are now prohibited from approaching within 35 feet of clinics unless they're entering or exiting or simply passing by. Last week, the Alliance Defense Fund, (ADF) a conservative advocacy group, challenged this law in federal district court, arguing that it’s vague and vests too much discretion in police officers, encouraging discriminatory enforcement, and that it privatizes a public sidewalk and public forum, banning peaceful anti-abortion protests where they are most likely to matter.

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First Amendment, reproductive choice

January 08, 2008

This Just In: Obama A Friend of Free Speech?
By James Tierney

NBC reports that a group of abortion protesters disrupted a Barack Obama rally in New Hampshire. Though the police came to usher the protesters out, Obama’s response seems to suggest that he understands the old notion of disagreeing with you but fighting for your right to say it:

“Let me just say this though. Some people got organized to do that [protest].

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elections, First Amendment, free speech

May 28, 2007

Aborting Speech
By Wendy Kaminer
Even free speech absolutists ought to sympathize with abortion providers and patients who want to prohibit anti-abortion protests in close proximity to clinics -- especially in Massachusetts. In 1994, when John Salvi shot up two local reproductive health care clinics, killing two people and wounding five, he left more than grief and carnage in his wake; he also left behind fear and a sense of vulnerability among people who continue to provide and seek abortions today.

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First Amendment, free speech, reproductive choice

April 20, 2007

Supreme Sectarians
By Wendy Kaminer

At the risk of being considered impolite, I can’t help but add that every one of the five Justices who upheld the ban on a second trimester abortion procedure (in defiance of expert medical opinion) are Catholic. Four are conservative Catholics. I expect that some consider the mere mention of this obvious but salient fact an example of religious bigotry, but advocates of more religion in government who praise the influence of sectarian religious ideals on public policy should be prepared to hear it questioned.

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feminism, religion, reproductive choice

April 20, 2007

The Justices vs Women, Doctors, and Liberty
By Harvey Silverglate

Wendy Kaminer is quite right that one of the most prominent features of the Supreme Court decision in Gonzales v. Carhart, upholding, for the first time, a ban on an abortion procedure that does not make an exception for the health of the woman, is the Court’s arrogant assumption that it need not credit the medical judgments of experts in the field.

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reproductive choice

April 19, 2007

Abortion Wrongs
By Wendy Kaminer
You’d think that a majority of Supreme Court Justices would be content with having climbed or kissed their way to the top of the judicial hierarchy, but, no -- they want to rule the medical profession too. Yesterday, in upholding a congressional ban on a particular abortion procedure, regardless of the ban’s effect on women’s health, five Justices substituted their judgments about medical necessities for the judgment of the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists.

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feminism, reproductive choice, equality

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Boston Phoenix
Protecting Anti-Abortion Protests, Like them or Not
Published 1/21/2008 by Wendy Kaminer
By Wendy Kaminer Last year, Governor Patrick signed a law mandating expanded no speech and no loitering zones around the entrances to abortion...

Boston Phoenix
This Just In: Obama A Friend of Free Speech?
Published 1/8/2008 by James Tierney
NBC reports that a group of abortion protesters disrupted a Barack Obama rally in New Hampshire. Tho...

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