Comstock Laws 1873:
These state and federal laws defined contraceptive information and materials
as obscene and forbade their dissemination throughout the U.S.
o 1971: Most provisions of these laws are repealed by Congress.
o 1983: The last of these laws is struck down by the Supreme Court.
Hyde Amendments (1970s):
This is a series of legislation that barred federal funding for abortion.
Title X of the Public Health Services Act (1970):
Title X is the nation’s major family planning program whose mission
is to reduce the number of unplanned pregnancies. It does this by providing
contraceptives and other reproductive health service to low-income women
in programs like Medicare, Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF),
State Children's Health Insurance Program (SCHIP), and the Maternal and
Child Health and Social Services block grants
Title XIX (1965):
An amendment to the Social Security Act which established the Medicaid
program. Under this program, states may treat family planning as a
reimbursable service. Adolescent Family Life Act (AFLA) (1981):
Also know as the “chastity law.” This law provided funding
for abstinence-only or chastity education in order to “promote self-discipline
and other prudent approaches” to adolescent sex. This law was challenged
by the ACLU on the grounds of separation of church and state and that
this law imposed the values of the Christian right into public schools. “The Squeal Rule” (1982):
This was an administrative regulation issued by the Reagan administration
requiring that clinics funded by Title X notify parents when teen are
issued prescription contraceptive. This is overturned in three different
federal
district courts and two circuit courts. Mexico City Policy (1984):
This is an executive order banning U.S. government financial assistance
to U.S. and foreign family planning agencies that "perform or actively
promote abortion as a method of family planning in other nations." It
was announced by the Reagan Administration at the 1984 United Nations
Population Conference in Mexico City. These organizations will receive
no funding
even for non-abortion activities in different countries. This policy
has since been known as the. A number of international organizations
like
International Planned Parenthood Federation and the United Nations Fund
for Population
Activities refused to conform and all U.S. government funding was cut
off. However, in response the European Union, UK, Sweden, and Switzerland
increased
funding to compensate. Under President Clinton, the ban was suspended
but it was reinstated and expanded to include all population organization
during
the Bush administration.
Top of Page The Kemp/Kasten Amendment (1985):
This legislation expands the Mexico Policy so that U.S. population-assistance
funds to "any organization or program which, as determined by the
President, supports or participates in the management of a program of
coercive abortion or involuntary sterilization." FDA Import Bulletin (1987):
This bulletin banned the importation of RU 486 until the Clinton Administration. The Gag Rule (1987):
Prohibits Title X clinics from in counseling a client about abortion
even if specifically asked or the lack of information would jeopardize
her health.
Under the Clinton administration, this policy is reversed but it is
reinstated under President Bush. Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances (FACE Act) (1994):
This Act prohibits the use or threat of force and physical obstruction
that injures, intimidates, or interferes with a person seeking to obtain
or provide reproductive health services. It also prohibits intentional
property damage of a facility providing reproductive health services.
The Access Act authorizes the Attorney General to seek injunctive relief,
statutory
or compensatory damages, and civil penalties against individuals who
engage in conduct that violates the Act. Communications Decency Act (1996):
This act is Title V of the Telecommunication Act of 1996. The primary
goal of this act was to regulate internet pornography. However, the
act was
worded vaguely enough that sexual and reproductive health information
could be banned. Within a year and a half, the Supreme Court had overturned
large
portions of the law including the ones that could be interpreted in
that way. Section 510(b) of Title V of the Social Security Act (1996):
This provision creates a multi-million dollar fund for abstinence-only
educational programs. States are required to match the amount provided
by federal government for these programs.
Top of Page Equal Employment Opportunity Commission Decision (2000):
This decision stated that exclusion of prescription contraceptives
from employee health plans was illegal sex discrimination. Partial Birth Abortion Ban Act of 2003:
This law banned the late-term abortion procedure known as “partial
birth abortion.” Under the law this procedure was defined as “an
abortion in which the person performing the abortion partially vaginally
delivers a living fetus before killing the fetus and completing the delivery.” This
language is vague enough that numerous other common methods of abortion
that are used in all terms like D&C, D&E, and the vacuum process.
These processes are some of the most
frequency used, safest, and simplest procedures which are most likely
to reserve the fertility of the woman. Also, this law contains no clause
permitting
the procedure in cases where the women’s health necessitates it.
For this reason, it was repeated vetoed during the Clinton
administration and a similar Nebraska law was struck down by
the Supreme Court
in Stenberg v. Carhart (2000). Immediately following the
passage of the law, federal judges in San Francisco, New York and Lincoln,
Nebraska
received cases challenging it. On June
2, 2004, the San Francisco court struck down the law on the grounds of
unconstitutionally
vague
language,
undue
burden on the woman, and the lack of a provision protecting the woman’s
health only life. The New York and Nebraska courts later also declared
the law unconstitutional. The cases are currently in the appeals process.
Unborn Victims Act (2004):
This law is also known as Laci and Connor’s Law after Lacy Peterson
and her unborn son Connor. It defines a violent attack on a pregnant
woman to be two crimes: one for her and one for the unborn child. This
law specifically
exempts doctors and or mothers in actions related to abortions. This
is seen by many as the first step towards granting an unborn child or
fetus
personhood and eventually banning abortion as murder. Courts have repeatedly
struck down similar state statutes The Abortion Non-Discrimination Act (ANDA) (2004):
This act is a rider on an omnibus appropriations law. It will allow a
broad range of health care entities, religious and secular, to refuse
to provide
pregnant women with all of their health service options—even in cases
of rape, incest, or when the pregnancy endangers a woman’s life—and
to refuse to comply with a wide array of federal, state, and local requirements
to provide such services.
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