Post A Comment On This Essay Essays - Law, Reproductive Rights

Post a comment on this essay Read other users' comments Print this essay New Essays | Popular Essays | Submit an Essay Index: Social Issues: Abortion Abortion In Roe et al. v. Wade District Attorney of Dallas County (1973), one of the most controversial cases in recent history, the U.S. Supreme Court struck down all state laws that limit a woman's right to an abortion during the first three months of pregnancy. Justices Rehnquist and White dissented. Mr. Justice Blackmun delivered the opinion of the Court.... This Texas federal appeal and its Georgia companion, Doe v. Bolton, post, p. 179, present constitutional challenges to state criminal abortion legislation. The Texas statutes under attack here are typical of those that have been in effect in many States for approximately a century. The Georgia statutes, in contrast, have a modern cast and are a legislative product that, to an extent at least, obviously reflects the influences of recent attitudinal change, of advancing medical knowledge and techniques, and of new thinking about an old issue. We forthwith acknowledge our awareness of the sensitive and emotional nature of the abortion controversy, of the vigourous opposing views, even among physicians, and of the deep and seemingly absolute convictions that the subject inspires. One's philosophy, one's experiences, one's exposure to the raw edges of human existence, one's religious training, one's attitudes toward life and family and their values, and the moral standards one establishes and seeks to observe, are all likely to influence and to color one's thinking and conclusions about abortion.... The Texas statutes that concern us here are Arts. 1191-1194 and 1196 of the State's Penal Code. These make it a crime to procure an abortion, as therein defined, or to attempt one, except with respect to an abortion procured or attempted by medical advice for the purpose of saving the life of the mother. Similar statutes are in existence in a majority of the States. Texas first enacted a criminal abortion statute in 1854. Texas Laws 1854, c. 49, Sec. 1, set forth in 3 H. Gammel, Laws of Texas 1502 (1898). This was soon modified into language that has remained substantially unchanged to the present time.... Jane Roe, a single woman who was residing in Dallas County, Texas, instituted this federal action in March 1970 against the District Attorney of the county. She sought a declaratory judgment that the Texas criminal abortion statutes were unconstitutional on their face, and an injunction restraining the defendant from enforcing the statutes. Roe alleged that she was unmarried and pregnant; that she wished to terminate her pregnancy by an abortion performed by a competent, licensed physician, under safe, clinical conditions; that she was unable to get a legal abortion in Texas because her life did not appear to be threatened by the continuation of her pregnancy; and that she could not afford to travel to another jurisdiction in order to secure a legal abortion under safe conditions. She claimed that the Texas statutes were unconstitutionally vague and that they abridged her right of personal privacy, protected by the First, Fourth, Fifth, Ninth, and Fourteenth Amendments. By an amendment to her complaint Roe purported to sue on behalf of herself and all other women similarly situated.... We are next confronted with issues of justiciability, standing, and abstention. Have Roe and the Does established that personal stake in the outcome of the controversy, Baker v. Carr, 369 U.S. 186, 204 (1962), that insures that the dispute sought to be adjudicated will be presented in an adversary context and in a form historically viewed as capable of judicial resolution,... The usual rule in federal cases is that an actual controversy must exist at stages of appellate or certiorari review, and not simply at the date the action is initiated... But when, as here, pregnancy is a significant fact in the litigation, the normal 266-day human gestation period is so short that the pregnancy will come to term before the usual appellate process is complete. If that termination makes a case moot, pregnancy litigation seldom will survive much beyond the trial stage, and appellate review will be effectively denied. Our law should not be that rigid.... We, therefore, agree with the District Court that Jane Roe had standing to undertake this litigation, that she presented a justiciable controversy, and that the termination of her 1970 pregnancy has not rendered her case moot.... The principal thrust of appellant's attack on the Texas statutes is that they improperly invade a right, said to be possessed by the pregnant woman,

Keynesian Theory And The New Deal Essays - Economy, Free Essays

Keynesian Theory And The New Deal Essays - Economy, Free Essays Keynesian Theory and the New Deal The crash of the stock market brought many hard times. Franklin D. Roosevelt's New Deal was a way to fix these times. John Stuart Mill and John Maynard Keynes were two economists whose economic theories greatly influenced and helped Franklin D. Roosevelt devise a plan to rescue the United States from the Great Depression it had fallen into. John Stuart Mill was a strong believer of expanded government, which the New Deal provided. John Maynard Keynes believed in supply and demand, which the New Deal used to stabilize the economy. Franklin D. Roosevelt's New Deal is the plan that brought the U.S. out of the Great Depression. It was sometimes thought to be an improvised plan, but was actually very thought out. Roosevelt was not afraid to involve the central government in addressing the economic problem. The basic plan was to stimulate the economy by creating jobs. First Roosevelt tried to help the economy with the National Recovery Administration. The NRA spread work and reduced unfair competitive practices by cooperation in industry. Eventually the NRA was declared unconstitutional. Franklin D. Roosevelt then needed a new plan. Keeping the same idea of creating jobs he made many other organizations devoted to forming jobs and in turn helping the economy. One of those organizations was the Civilian Conservation Corps. This corps took men off the streets and paid them to plant forests and drain swamps. Another of these organizations was the Public Works Administration. This organization employed men to build highways and public buildings. These were only some of the organizations dedicated to creating jobs. Creating jobs was important because it put money in the hands of the consumer. This directly affected the supply and demand. The more money they had the more they could spend. This would slowly start a chain reaction and bring the economy back to the way it was before the depression. By the end of the 1930's this plan had lowered unemployment to 17.2%. To make these organizations it was going to take money. Roosevelt had to deficit spend, which is when the government spends more than their budget in one year, in order to obtain this money. Of course these ideas of supply and demand and active government didn't just come to him. He was influenced by John Maynard Keynes and John Stuart Mill. There philosophies were the basis of the New Deal. John Stuart Mill, who began studying economics at age 13, was one of the most influential political thinkers of the mid-Victorian period. He believed in empiricism and utilitarianism. Empiricism is the belief that legitimate knowledge comes only from experience. Utilitarianism is the belief by which things are judged right or wrong. It is judged according to their consequences. In a way he was a hypocrite. When the economy was good he believed in Laisezz-Faire, which means "hands off." If the economy was bad, though, he believed in an extended role of government. This simply meant that the government should take part in the economy and try to make it better. The New Deal was a very active government plan because it had the government working directly to make jobs and fix the economy. Mill died in 1873 and would never had a chance to talk to Franklin D. Roosevelt. In a press conference Franklin D. Roosevelt once said, "I brought down several books by English economists and leading American economists, I suppose I must have read different articles by fifteen different experts."(Schlesinger, Pg.650) This writing indirectly steered Roosevelt towards a plan which expanded the role of government. Mill gave Franklin D. Roosevelt the basis of the plan, but it needed to be elaborated on. John Maynard Keynes was the man to do this. John Maynard Keynes, one of the most influential economists of the 20th century. For many years he was an active voice in economics. In 1929 he wrote We Can Conquer Unemployment and in 1930 he wrote his Treatise on Money. Ten years before he died he wrote his General Theory of Employment, Interest and Money. Above all he believed in supply and demand. This was an indirect way to let the economy balance itself. In