Abortion: New Directions for Policy Studies

Abortion: New Directions for Policy Studies

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Book Chapter

Donald P. Kommers, Abortion and the Constitution: The Cases of West Germany and the United States, in Abortion: New Directions for Policy Studies 83 (Edward Manier, William Liu, & David Solomon eds., 1977)

On January 22, 1973, the United States Supreme Court substantially curtailed the power of the American states to prohibit or limit the right of a woman to procure an abortion. On February 25, 1975, the West German Federal Constitutional Court ruled that the German parliament, by permitting abortions within the first three months of pregnancy, violated the constitutional rights of unborn children. These decisions provide us with an uncommon opportunity to compare the constitutional law of different nations on abortion. That the highest tribunals of two robust constitutional democracies and secular political cultures should decide the question of the unborn child's right to life under the constitutions of their respective countries differently should excite the wonder of us all, no matter where we may stand in the abortion controversy.

ISBN

9780268005825

Publication Date

1977

Publisher

University of Notre Dame Press

City

Notre Dame

Keywords

abortion, abortion law, comparative law, West Germany, constitutional law, abortion policy

Disciplines

Comparative and Foreign Law | Constitutional Law | Health Law and Policy | Law

Abortion: New Directions for Policy Studies

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