reproductive rights 
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SOURCE: Made By History at the Washington Post
5/19/2023
After Dobbs, Abortion Politics are Straining the Republican Coalition
by Daniel K. Williams
When the party could focus on appointing anti-Roe judges, the Republicans could make abortion a political issue without having to decide matters of policy that inevitably leave parts of their coalition angry and disappointed. Have they lost by winning?
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SOURCE: Made By History at the Washington Post
5/17/2023
The Relevance of Common Law to Today's Abortion Debate: How Did the Law Work in Practice?
by Katherine Bergevin, Stephanie Insley Hershinow and Manushag N. Powell
Samuel Alito's ruling in Dobbs claimed to ground itself in the English common law's treatment of pregnancy. But he focused on a small number of published treatises while ignoring the record of how the law actually treated pregnant women and fetuses.
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SOURCE: The Atlantic
4/28/2023
Abortion Restrictions Aimed at Minors Will Never Stop There
by Mary Ziegler
In the years after Roe v. Wade, abortion opponents recognized both that children didn't always enjoy the same constitutional protections as adults and that many voters would separate "parental rights" from the organized effort to roll back abortion rights. The ploy was effective, and is being repeated in legislation banning travel to access abortion.
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SOURCE: The Atlantic
4/19/2023
The New Anti-Abortion Movement is Targeting Complete Bans
Abortion law historian Mary Ziegler says that a younger generation of uncompromising leaders is likely to win control of the antiabortion movement and push for legislation and policy changes without regard for their public popularity. Daniel K. Williams says the Dobbs ruling has only fueled their sense of righteousness.
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SOURCE: Made By History at the Washington Post
4/12/2023
Judge Kacsmaryk Misread the Comstock Act
by Lauren MacIvor Thompson
The initial draft of the 1873 anti-obscenity legislation, which banned mailing information about and devices or medicines intended to induce abortion, had an exemption for physicians, and later court precedents interpreted the act as if that exemption were part of the law. Judge Kacsmaryk has ignored this legal history in his ruling.
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SOURCE: New York Times
3/17/2023
On Abortion, Corporate Chains Like Walgreens Fear the Republicans More than the "Woke"
by Mary Ziegler
Despite claims that "woke" corporations are pushing a left-wing agenda, Republican Attorneys General have successfully pressured Walgreens under threat of litigation to stop selling mifepristone in states where abortion remains legal.
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SOURCE: Slate
3/14/2023
Texas's Abortion Ban Can Never be Made Humane
by Mary Ziegler
When abortion access depends on establishing that a pregnant woman deserves an exception to a ban, the law will inevitably prevent doctors from serving patients with problem pregnancies.
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SOURCE: Harvard Gazette
1/31/2023
Harvard Law Symposium on Roe 50 Years Later
A conference hosted by the Radcliffe Institute convened legal and historical scholars to discuss the future of reproductive rights.
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SOURCE: WBEZ
1/31/2023
The Story of one of the Few Black Members of Chicago's Secret Abortion Rights Underground
Recent attention to the Jane Collective's pre-Roe activities to help women obtain abortions has passed over the work of a small number of Black women like Marie Leaner within the group, and the struggle to connect reproductive and racial justice politics.
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SOURCE: Made By History at the Washington Post
9/27/2022
Black Women's Activism Ties Reproductive Rights to Broader Goals of Freedom
by Kim Gallon
Black women's reproductive lives have always been complicated by institutional racism, sexism, and the balance of personal autonomy and racial solidarity. Black feminists have struggled to use the African American press as a space to force discussion of the issues.
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SOURCE: The New Republic
9/6/2022
Criminalizing Abortion Will Tear Families Apart
There are relatively few Americans living today whose parents were harassed or jailed for performing illegal abortions. Their stories should inform the debate today.
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SOURCE: Made By History at the Washington Post
9/8/2022
Why Medical Exceptions to Abortion Bans Won't Protect Women
by Evan Hart
Under new restrictive state laws, judges and lawyers, not doctors or patients, will decide who can get a medically necessary abortion.
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SOURCE: Nursing Clio
9/1/2022
A Return to the 1960s "Abortion Handbook for Responsible Women"?
by Lina-Maria Murillo
Women acting on principles of mutual aid have worked to make information about reproductive health, including terminating pregnancies, available even at risk of legal punishment.
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SOURCE: MSNBC
8/28/2022
Leslie Reagan: Pro-Life is a Historical Misnomer
The author of "When Abortion Was a Crime" discusses the pro-life movement with Washington Post columnist Jennifer Rubin.
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SOURCE: Mother Jones
8/1/2022
The Battle over Reproductive Freedom Still Rages at Dr. George Tiller's Former Clinic
"It’s been more than a decade since Tiller was murdered, but at Trust Women, which reopened and rebranded under his protégé Julie Burkhart in 2013, the past has a habit of lingering outside the gates."
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SOURCE: The New Yorker
7/6/2022
Abortion Is Not Just About Privacy; It's About Freedom
by Keeanga-Yamahtta Taylor
"If women cannot dictate this most basic aspect of their being, then the Supreme Court has effectively consigned them to a distinctly secondary tier of citizenship."
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SOURCE: Nursing Clio
6/30/2022
Nursing Clio's Collective Reproductive History Syllabus
This is a selection from an in-progress project to develop a collectively-sourced syllabus for the history of reproduction and reproductive rights and freedom.
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SOURCE: Made By History at the Washington Post
6/27/2022
A Guide from the Past for Travelers Seeking an Abortion
by Sarah Elvins
"Women traveling to procure abortions is nothing new. Before the 1973 Roe ruling, state-to-state travel existed, as did highly organized transnational networks to guide women across borders."
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SOURCE: Made By History at the Washington Post
6/25/2022
What the 1960s Tell Us about the Path to Secure Reproductive Freedom
by Felicia Kornbluh
Those who wish to protect abortion rights and other reproductive freedoms after the Dobbs decision must consider combining any and all strategies available, from lobbying to civil disobedience and mass action.
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SOURCE: Politico
6/8/2022
What to Expect after Roe, Based on Research
by Diana Greene Foster
The author has systematically studied the consequences to women of having an abortion or having that freedom denied. She explains what to expect when states are free to outlaw abortion: more child poverty, more maternal death, and reduced opportunities for women, with the poor getting the worst of it.
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