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Justice Blackmun and legal abortion--a besieged legacy to women's reproductive health.

Justice Blackmun and legal abortion--a besieged legacy to women's reproductive health. Topics for Our Times: Justice Blackmun and Legal Abortion-A Besieged Legacy to Women's Reproductive Health Justice Harry A. Blackmun's 24-year tenure on the Supreme Court ended in 1994.' One of only three justices in US history with medical training, Justice Blackmun probably will be best remembered for writing the majority opinion in Roe v Wade (HO US 113, 1973). This landmark decision, together with its companion decision of Doe v Bolton (410 US 179, 1973), declared restrictive state abortion laws unconstitutional. These cases had a dramatic effect on the health of women of childbearing age throughout the remainder of the 1970s.2 However, the same Supreme Court decisions that had permitted public health advances in the 1970s were challenged in the 1980s and then supplanted in the 1990s. We will discuss the judicial background for Blackmun's opinions, document the health effects in the 1970s, and explain how the 1973 rulings have evolved in later decades to reduce the relative availability of legal abortion today. Oral arguments were heard in the spring of 1972, and the justices used their summer recess to consider the abortion issue. Justice Blackmun emerged as the author of the Court's opinion.4 Blackmun had considerable prior http://www.deepdyve.com/assets/images/DeepDyve-Logo-lg.png American Journal of Public Health American Public Health Association

Justice Blackmun and legal abortion--a besieged legacy to women's reproductive health.

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Publisher
American Public Health Association
Copyright
Copyright © by the American Public Health Association
ISSN
0090-0036
eISSN
1541-0048
Publisher site
See Article on Publisher Site

Abstract

Topics for Our Times: Justice Blackmun and Legal Abortion-A Besieged Legacy to Women's Reproductive Health Justice Harry A. Blackmun's 24-year tenure on the Supreme Court ended in 1994.' One of only three justices in US history with medical training, Justice Blackmun probably will be best remembered for writing the majority opinion in Roe v Wade (HO US 113, 1973). This landmark decision, together with its companion decision of Doe v Bolton (410 US 179, 1973), declared restrictive state abortion laws unconstitutional. These cases had a dramatic effect on the health of women of childbearing age throughout the remainder of the 1970s.2 However, the same Supreme Court decisions that had permitted public health advances in the 1970s were challenged in the 1980s and then supplanted in the 1990s. We will discuss the judicial background for Blackmun's opinions, document the health effects in the 1970s, and explain how the 1973 rulings have evolved in later decades to reduce the relative availability of legal abortion today. Oral arguments were heard in the spring of 1972, and the justices used their summer recess to consider the abortion issue. Justice Blackmun emerged as the author of the Court's opinion.4 Blackmun had considerable prior

Journal

American Journal of Public HealthAmerican Public Health Association

Published: Sep 1, 1995

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