LAURA HOLLIS: Abortion case law on collision course with itself

[TomSea]

LAURA HOLLIS: Abortion case law on collision course with itself
Laura Hollis

In her dissent in the 1983 case Akron v. Akron Center for Reproductive Health, former Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O'Connor wrote, "The Roe framework...is clearly on a collision course with itself."

O'Connor was speaking of the trimester framework that was the basis of the original Roe v. Wade decision. The Roe court made a distinction between the constitutionality of state laws regulating abortion before fetal viability and those that would regulate abortion after viability.

Although the majority in Akron did not side with O'Connor, the concerns she raised in her dissent were prescient. As she noted at the time, "viability" in 1973 (when Roe was decided) was considered to be 28 weeks gestation at the earliest and generally well into the third trimester of pregnancy. But even 35 years ago, when the Akron case was argued, O'Connor could see that advances in medical technology would push viability earlier — into the second trimester — and possibly even earlier.

Read more at: http://www.nwitimes.com/opinion/columnists/guest-commentary/laura-hollis-abortion-case-law-on-collision-course-with-itself/article_5efd6629-6b82-5a67-96d0-10d28de0e2e9.html