Keynote Lecture – Reproductive Justice Across the Pregnancy Spectrum: Lessons from the USA
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Reproductive Justice Across the Pregnancy Spectrum: Lessons from the USA Farah Diaz-Tello, J.D. Senior Staff Attorney
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Transcript of Keynote Lecture – Reproductive Justice Across the Pregnancy Spectrum: Lessons from the USA
Reproductive Justice Across the Pregnancy
Spectrum: Lessons from the USA
Farah Diaz-Tello, J.D.Senior Staff Attorney
Thank you.
“All this, together with our observation, supra, that
throughout the major portion of the 19th century prevailing legal abortion practices were far freer than they are today, persuades
us that the word ‘person,’ as used in the Fourteenth
Amendment, does not include the unborn.”
Roe v. Wade, 410 U.S. 113, 158 (U.S. 1973).
Shall there be an amendment to the Colorado constitution
protecting pregnant women and unborn children by
defining "person" and "child" in the Colorado criminal code
and the Colorado wrongful death act to include unborn
human beings?
“Had an autopsy been performed we might have
been able to develop evidence sufficient to charge
the defendant with a first degree felony, which carries the maximum penalty of
life. Justice has been denied for this infant’s
death.”
Applicability to certain conduct.
This chapter does not apply to conduct charged as having been committed against an individual
who is an unborn child if the conduct is:
(1) committed by the mother of the unborn child
Tex. Penal Code § 22.12.
Tenn. Code Ann. § 37-13-107(c)(1)
“Nothing in subsection (a) shall apply to any lawful act or
lawful omission by a pregnant woman with respect to an
embryo or fetus with which she is pregnant...”
Ex parte Hicks, 2014 Ala. LEXIS 60, at *34 (Ala. Apr. 18, 2014) (Moore, C.J., concurring specially).
“I write separately to emphasize that the inalienable right to life is a gift of God that civil government must secure
for all persons—born and unborn.”
Ex parte Hicks, 2014 Ala. LEXIS 60, at *88 (Ala. Apr. 18, 2014) (Parker, J., concurring specially).
“Why should legal protection of an individual at a particular point in time depend entirely
upon his or her subjective relationship to the killer?”
Ex parte Hicks, 2014 Ala. LEXIS 60, at *88 (Ala. Apr. 18, 2014) (Parker, J., concurring specially).
“Because an unborn child has an inalienable right to life from its
earliest stages of development, it is entitled not only to a life free
from the harmful effects of chemicals at all stages of
development but also to life itself at all stages of development.”
Ex parte Hicks, 2014 Ala. LEXIS 60, at *87 (Ala. Apr. 18, 2014) (Parker, J., concurring specially).
“[O]ur grief is not for the Constitution alone; we also
grieve for the millions of children who have not been afforded
equal value, love, and protection since Roe.”
Ex parte Hicks, 2014 Ala. LEXIS 60, at *3 (Ala. Apr. 18, 2014).
“Documents in the record suggest that, since his birth,
J.D. is ‘doing fine.’”
There aren’t women who have abortions and women who have babies.
Rebecca Atkins, PA, MPH, Exec. Dir., VWHC
Those are the same women at different points in their lives.
“Bearing an unwanted child is surely a greater intrusion on the mother’s constitutional interests
than undergoing a caesarean section to deliver a child that the mother affirmatively desires to
deliver.”
Pemberton v. Tallahassee Mem. Regional Med. Ctr., Inc., 66 F. Supp. 2d 1247, 1251 (N.D. Fla. 1999).
“The fetus is > 23 weeks gestation and does not have a lethal untreatable anomaly…
The woman has decisional capacity.
I have decided to override her refusal to have a C-section.
Her physician … and hospital attorney … are in agreement”
Women have the right to choose how and where to give birth, but they do not have the
right to put their baby at risk.
