Abortion Law is Family Law

[InSearchofGrace]

Very good article by Helen Alvare

Abortion Law is Family Law

Excerpt

• Justice Kennedy’s majority opinion in Gonzales v. Carhart indicated that the Court itself was beginning to understand abortion in a family context. The opinion states outright that a bond exists between a woman and her biological offspring and that the severance of this bond via abortion might cause significant suffering for the woman. The majority wrote that “Respect for human life finds an ultimate expression in the bond of love the mother has for her child.” The Court’s use of language like “mother” and “child” also indicates a family law context. So does the majority’s choice of labels for the unborn including “a living organism while within the womb,” “unborn child,” “infant life,” and “child assuming the human form.” The Court continued: “some women come to regret their choice to abort the infant life they once created and sustained.”

There are quite a few signs that the time is ripe for exploring abortion from within a family law context. Indeed, there is some evidence that family law is experiencing second thoughts about “what was lost” during the period when lawmakers fell into a pattern of prioritizing adults’ interests over children’s. This is a fair characterization of family law’s failures over the past 30-40 years: the failure to place meaningful limits on the use of assisted reproductive technologies (ARTs) in order to defer to adults’ wishes and to the flourishing of the fertility industry; the adoption of no-fault divorce laws which turned a blind eye to the wellbeing of minor children within a marriage. This “adults’-eye-view” (really a blindness) has permeated recent judicial decisions creating a right to same-sex marriage on the grounds that legal marriage is unrelated to any state interest in procreation and child-rearing.*

A backlash against the adults-first approach is now brewing. Bills introduced at the state level have suggested a number of positive steps, including restricting assisted reproductive technologies to married couples, or limiting donor anonymity. Others have proposed slowing down divorce proceedings, especially for couples with minor children. Meanwhile, every state which has turned the question of same-sex marriage over to voters has passed a law or constitutional amendment banning them, largely after campaigns insisting on the links between marriage, procreation, and child welfare.

Full article here.
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