legislation
It is Time That the UK Had a National Conversation About the Rights of the Unborn
by Irfan Chowdhury Troubling Legislation The United Kingom (UK) is currently considering legislation that will decriminalise abortion up to birth; this is Clause 191 of the Crime and Policing Bill, which states: Clause 191 would disapply the existing criminal law on abortion in England and Wales for women acting in…
Abortion: A Restorative Justice Response
by Jim Hewes This is a response to the question of what states will now do after the Dobbs decision when women procure illegal abortions. There was a joint letter from more than 70 leading pro-life organizations stating that “criminalizing women who have abortions is not pro-life.” Many pro-life leaders and politicians have publicly stated…
Post-Roe Stats: the Natural Experiment
by Rachel MacNair In a post-Roe world, predictions (hypotheses) can be made to test claims of differing perspectives. What’s coming is a huge “natural experiment.” A natural experiment, unlike a lab experiment, wasn’t arranged in advance. An 1854 London cholera outbreak had differing patterns of water sources – cholera could be caused by contaminated water….
Post-Roe Life-Affirming Help
by Rachel MacNair Now that we can refer to the Roe era in the past tense, we have some different considerations for building a Culture of Life (and a Culture of Peace, which I see as the same thing). Abortions Going Down A commonly expressed fear in the media is that abortions can only be…
My Ideas for Post-Roe Legislation
by Rachel MacNair Now that Roe’s overturn looks like a real possibility, I want to suggest some ideas for legislation. When the Biden administration started, I wrote My Ideas for 2021 Legislation, detailing what I would advise if I were asked, knowing I wouldn’t be asked. I still hold to ratifying the United Nations…
What Studies Show: Impact of Abortion Regulations
The upcoming Dobbs v. Jackson case in the U.S. Supreme Court, which may overturn or curtail Roe v. Wade, calls for educating about this question: What do we know about what restrictions do? The edited excerpts below are from Peace Psychology Perspectives on Abortion, Chapter 15, The Psychological and Social Impact of Legal Regulations….
“The Daily Show” Doesn’t Do Its Homework
by Rachel MacNair On September 27, 2021, comedian Trevor Noah offered What Happens When a State Bans Abortions? in his ongoing segment, “If You Don’t Know, Now You Know.” What I know after watching it is that Trevor is competent at giving the conventional talking points in favor of abortion availability, the ones we’ve…
My Ideas for 2021 Legislation
The 117th U.S. Congress started on January 3, 2021. Reminder: Opinions are those of the author and aren’t official for the Consistent Life Network as an organization. by Rachel MacNair My mind isn’t of the lobbying sort; my mind is of the conflict-resolution sort. This mainly means looking at the interests people have, rather…
Our Experience with Overturning Terrible Court Decisions
by Rachel MacNair Several US Supreme Court decisions have been horrifying. What lessons can we learn from history? Dred Scott v. Sandford, 1857 Dred Scott was an enslaved man who petitioned the Court for his freedom and that of his wife and their two daughters, because they had been moved to a state without slavery….
Why the Hyde Amendment Helps Low-Income Women
by Rachel MacNair In the US, the 40th anniversary of the Hyde amendment’s first passage was September 30, 2016. The amendment is a legislative provision that taxpayers, especially through the Medicaid program, don’t pay for most abortions. Medicaid provides health care for low-income people and goes state-by-state, so when the amendment passed, some states immediately stopped funding, but…