/pdf/a-comparative-analysis-of-women-s-issues-toward-a-1hl5f5trvi.pdf

A Comparative Analysis of Women's Issues: Toward a Contextualized Approach

[T]HERE ARE SERIOUS constitutional concerns presented by abortion-restrictive regu­ lation that [Roe v. Wade] does not address. Restricting women's access to abortion im­ plicates constitutional values of equality as well as privacy.... A growing number of commentators have begun to address abortion regulation as an issue of sexual equal­ ity, l articulating concerns scarcely recognized in prevailing accounts of abortion as a right of privacy. Properly understood, constitutional limitations on antiabortion laws, like constitutional limitations on antimiscegenation laws, have moorings in both pri­ vacy and equal protection. There are, however, substantial impediments to analyzing abortion-restrictive reg­ ulation in an equal protection framework, which few proponents of the claim have con­ fronted. The Court has yet to characterize laws governing pregnancy as sex-based state action for purposes of equal protection review;2 but, even if it did so, a deeper ju­ risprudential problem remains. The Court typically reasons about reproductive regu­ lation in physiological paradigms, as a form of state action that concerns physical facts of sex rather than social questions of gender. It has often observed that the reality of reproductive differences between the sexesjustifies their differential regulatory treat­ ment. This mode of reasoning about reproductive regulation obscures the possibility that such regulation may be animated by constitutionally illicit judgments about women. Thus, while sex-based state action is generally scrutinized to ensure it is free of "old notions of role typing" or other vestiges of the separate spheres tradition-such as the assumption that women are "child-rearers" or the assumption that "the female [is] destined solely for the home and the rearing of the family"3-regulation which di­ rectly concerns women's role in reproduction has yet to receive similar scrutiny. Like any other form of sex-based state action, regulation directed at women's role in reproduction demands exacting scrutiny to ensure it does not reflect or enforce traditional gender role assumptions. Equal protection jurisprudence has repeatedly articulated principles that would support such an inquiry. But current doctrine lacks the critical capacity to discern gender bias in reproductive regulation, a grasp of how

/pdf/reasoning-from-the-body-a-historical-perspective-on-abortion-3ofulnw4wy.pdf

Reasoning from the body: a historical perspective on abortion regulation and questions of equal protection.

This essay uses the narrative form to share experiences from one latina's perspective. The author aspires to show how latinas/os, a magnificently diverse group, can be a critical factor in building the bridges that can move the stubborn, static oppositionality (normative) perspective towards a "true universalist" approach. I suggest latinas/os can do this because our diverse backgrounds have equipped us with a multiple perspective viewpoint.

/pdf/building-bridges-latinas-and-latinos-at-the-crossroads-mswdrp5yr7.pdf

A Comparative Analysis of Women's Issues: Toward a Contextualized Approach

References

Reasoning from the body: a historical perspective on abortion regulation and questions of equal protection.

Building Bridges - Latinas and Latinos at the Crossroads: Realities, Rhetoric and Replacement

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