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.

Farah Diaz-Tellofdt@advocatesforpregnantwomen.org

facebook.com/NationalAdvocatesforPregnantWomen@NAPW