International Dimensions of the Department of Justice Arguments in the Webster Case

Hereafter referred to as “Department's brief.”

Webster v. Reproductive Health Services, 109 S.Ct.3040 (1989).

410 U.S. 113.

Department's brief at 23.

European Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms opened for signature, Nov. 4, 1950, Europ. TS No. 5, 213 U.N.T.S. 222 (hereinafter referred to as “the European Convention”).

Department's brief at 23.

See Cook R.J. , chart on Regional Developments in Abortion Laws: 1967–1988, 15 “Abortion Law and Policies: Challenges and Opportunities” Int. Gynecol J. . & Obstet. Supp 3:61, 1989. See also, Cook R.J. and Dickens B.M. , “A Decade of International Change in Abortion Law: 1967–1977,” 68 Am. Pub J. . Health 637 (1978); Cook R.J. and Dickens B.M. , “International Developments in Abortion Laws: 1977–1988,” 78 Am. Pub J. . Health 1305 (1988). English translations of laws available in U.N. Population Fund and Harvard Law School Library, Annual Review of Population Law (1974–85; World Health Organization, International Digest of Health Legislation

Glendon M.A. , Abortion and Divorce in Western Law: American Failures, European Responses (1987).

Department's brief at 23.

For helpful surveys, see M. Buquicchio-De Boer, “Children and the European Convention on Human Rights” in Matscher F. and Petzold H. (eds.) Protecting Human Rights: The European Dimension (1988) at 73–89, and Golsong H. , “The European Court of Human Rights and the National Lawmaker: Some General Reflections,” id at 239–244.

Id.

X. v. United Kingdom (Re Detention of a Mental Patient), 4 E.H.R.R. 188 (1981) at 203.

Article 57.

Sieghart P. , The International Law of Human Rights (1983) at 27.

Judgment of October 11, 1974. Constitutional Court, Erklarungen des Verfassungsgerichtshofs 221 (Aus.)

Paton v. United Kingdom, 3 E.H.R.R. 408 (1980) at 413.

Bruggeman and Scheuten v. Federal Republic of Germany, 3 E.H.R.R. 244 (1977). The 1976 West German Abortion Law conformed to broad guidelines for legislation on abortion laid down by the Constitutional Court of the Federal Republic of Germany in Judgment of February 25, 1975 Bundesverfassungsgericht, 39 BVerfGE 1, translated in Jonas & Gorby, “West German Abortion Decision — A Contrast to Roe v. Wade” 9 John Marshall Prac J. . & Proc. 551 (1976), which held the earlier 1974 law permitting abortion on request during the first trimester unconstitutional.

Appealing the High Court of Ireland decision in Attorney General (S.P.U.C.) v. Open Door Counselling, 1987 I.L.R.M. 477.

The decision of Nov. 14, 1988 of the Cour d'Appel de Gand overturning the acquittal of individuals for performing abortions (Judgment of Feb. 12, 1988 Tribunal Correctionnel de Gand) is being appealed to the highest Belgian Court, the Cour de Cassation. Once domestic remedies are exhausted it is likely to be appealed to the European Commission of Human Rights.

See Henkin L. , “Introduction,” in The International Bill of Rights ( Henkin L. , ed. 1981) at 27.

410 U.S. 179

Judgment of October 31, 1980, Conseil d'Etat Recueil Dalloz-Sirey [D.S.Jur.] 19732 (France 1982).

Law of 7 May 1981, s.5.

Section 1(1)(d).

Section 5(1).

Department brief at 23.

Section 15 of Law No. 194 of 22 May 1978 on the Social Protection of Motherhood and the Voluntary Termination of Pregnancy requires that health regions provide refresher training courses for health and allied health personnel in contraception.

These countries are Austria para. 97, Denmark sec. 8, Finland sec. 4, France sec. 3, Germany (Federal Republic of) sec. 218 b. Greenland sec, 8, Iceland sec. 12, Italy sec. 5, Luxembourg sec. 353 (1(d)(1), Netherlands sec. 5, New Zealand sec. 35, Norway sec. 1, Sweden —paid for as a matter of government policy. With the exception of Sweden all section numbers refer to the respective national abortion laws, see below.

42 U.S.C. sections 300–300a-41 (1982). See New York v. Bowen, 690 F. Supp. 1261 (S.D.N.Y. 1988), appeal pending, Nos. 88- 6204/06 (2d Cir.); Planned Parenthood Fed'n of Am. v. Bowen, 680 F. Supp. 1465 (preliminary injunction), 687 F. Supp. 540 (permanent injunction) (D. Colo. 1988), appeal pending, No. 88–2251 (10th Cir.); Massachusetts v. Bowen, 679 F. Supp. 137 (D. Mass.) (permanent injunction), appeal pending, No. 88- 1279 (1st Cir.).

Section 4, Law 75–17 of 17 Jan. 1975 (Fr.)

Section 2 of Law 194 of 22 May 1978 (Italy).

Section 16 of Law of 22 May 1975 (Ice.).

Section 5(1)(d) of Law of May 1981 (Neth.).

Section 9 of Law of 15 November 1978 (Lux.).

Section 11 of Law 2439 of 24 March 1970 (Fin.) requires that the “State Medical Board shall take measures to ensure that there are a sufficient number of physicians with authority to render opinions, and a sufficient number of abortion hospitals, in all parts of the country, and that physicians with authority to render opinions, and operating physicians make every effort to adopt an impartial and consistent approach.” Moreover, section 5 of the same law imposes a duty upon the State Medical Board to perform abortions “at the earliest possible stage of pregnancy.”

Decree No. 80–285 of 17 April 1980 (Fr.) and Decree No. 82- 1826 of September 1982 (Fr.) obligate regional and general hospitals and all public establishments equipped with surgical and maternity services to carry out voluntary interruptions of pregnancy.

Section 15 of Law 194 of 22 May 1978 (Italy).

Section 5 of Law 239 of 24 March 1970 (Fin.).

Section 13 of Law 194 of 22 May 1978.

Morgentaler, Smoling and Scott v. The Queen (1988), 44 D.L.R. (4th) 385.

See note 15 above.

Judgment of January 15, 1975, Conseil Constitutionnel, [1975] D.S.Jur. 529, Journal Officiel, Jan. 16, 1975.

Judgment of February 18, 1975, Corte Costituzionale [Corte Cost.], no. 27, 98 Foro It. I, Giurisprudencia Constituzionale e Civile [Giur. Cost. e. Civ.] 515 (Italy), translated in part in M. Cappellotti & W. Cohen Comparative Constitutional Law: Cases and Materials (1979) 612–14, The Court observed that women's health prevails over fetal life, because “there is no equivalence between the right not only to life but also to health of one who — like the pregnant woman — is already a person, and the safeguard of an embryo which has yet to become a person”. Id. at 613.

Judgment No. 108/81 of June 25, 1981, Corte Costituzionale, 57 Raccolta Ufficiale della Corte Constituzionale [Rac. uff. corte cost.] 823 (1981).

Stith R. , “New Constitutional and Penal Theory in Spanish Abortion Law,” 35 Amer. J. Comp. L. (1987) 513 at 514.

Id. at 528.

In Attorney-General for Queensland; Ex rel. Kerr v. T (1983) 46 A.L.R. 275 the High Court of Australia confirmed a decision of the Queensland State Court that an injunction could not be granted to an unmarried man to restrain the woman he had made pregnant from having an abortion. Moreover, there is a consistent trend in Australia for their state courts to recognize legitimacy of abortion on grounds of preservation of physical or mental health as determined by a physician acting in good faith; New South Wales – R. v. Wald [1971] 3 D.C.R. (N.S.W.) 25; Queensland – The Queen v. Bayliss and Cullen (1986) 9 QLD Lawyer Reps 6; Victoria – R. v. Davidson (1969) V.R. 667; see also the consistent New Zealand decision R. v. Woolnough [1977] 2 N.Z.L.R. 508.

Daigle v. Tremblay, Supreme Court of Canada decision, 8 August 1989, File No. 21553 unanimously reversing majority decision of the Quebec Court of Appeal.

Paton v. Trustees of British Pregnancy Advisory Service, [1978] 2 All E.R. 987; affirmed by the European Commission on Human Rights in Paton v. United Kingdom, E.H.R.R. 408 (1980) husband's attempt to enjoin his wife from having an abortion rejected); Gillick v. West Norfolk and Wisbech Area Health Authority (1985), 3 All E.R. 402 (parents' application for a declaration of entitlement to prevent their minor daughter from having an abortion rejected by House of Lords).

Judgment of October 31, 1980, Conseil d'Etat D.S.Jur 19732 (1982) (husband's attempt to enjoin his wife from having an abortion rejected); Judgment of November 8, 1982 Tribunal pour les Enfants d'Evry, 15 D.S.Jur. 218, (April 12, 1983) (parents' attempts to enjoin their minor daughter from having an abortion rejected).

Judgment of March 31, 1988, Corte Cost., Gazzetta Ufficiale, 1 serie speciale, April 13, 1988, n.15; Giur. Cost e Civ. 2110 (1988) (husband's attempt to enjoin his wife from having an abortion rejected).

Department's brief at 23.

Reproductive Health Services v. Webster, 851 F. 2d 1071 (8th Cir. 1988).

References in German are to A. Eser and Koch H.G. , Schwangerschaftaabbruch im Internationalen Vergleich (Termination of Pregnancy in International Comparison) (1988); E. Ketting and P. Van Praag, Schwangerschaftaabbruch: Gesetz und Praxis im Internationalen Vergleich (Termination of Pregnancy: The Law and Practice in International Comparison) (1985); and The English Language references are to C. Tietze and Henshaw S. , Induced Abortion: A World View 1986 (6th ed. 1986).

Harris v. McRae, 448 U.S. 297(1980).

Note 53 above, at 1083.

See Greenberg J. , “Impact of Pre-natal Care in Different Social Groups,” 145 Am. J. Obstet. & Gyn. (1983) 797.

Id.

Population Reports, Series J No. 27 (May/month) 1984) Healthier Mothers and Children Through Family Planning.

See the British Abortion Act 1967 section 1(1)(a).

See note 57, above.

National Center for Health Statistics, Advanced Report on final Mortality Statistics 37:6 Monthly Vital Statistics Reports Supp. 42 Table 16(1988).

See Harris v. McRae, note 55 above.

Note 53 above, at 1083.

Grossman M. and Jacobowitz S. , “Variations in Infant Mortality Rates among Countries of the United States: The Roles of Public Policies and Programs” 18(4) Demography (1981) 695. See comparable research findings in Alan Guttmacher Institute, Abortions and The Poor: Private Morality, public Responsibility (1979).

Law No. 239 of 24 March 1970 (Fin.), section 5.

Id., section 11.

note 40, above.

Beetz, J., concurring, id. at 456.

City of Akron v. Akron Center for Reproductive Health, Inc. 462 U.S. 416 (1983) at 461.

note 40, above, at 499, citing W.J. Sumner, Abortion and Moral Theory (1981) at 125–8.

Law 239 of 24 Mar 1970 as amended by § 5.

Law 79–1204 of 31 Dec 1979, § 12.

Law 1609 of 28 Jun 1986, § 304 (4)(1), (4).

Law 194 of 22 May 1978, § 6.

Law of 15 Nov 1978, § 353(3).

Law 66 of 16 Jun 1978, § 2.

Organic Law 9 of 5 July 1985, § 417(3).

Paton v. United Kingdom, note 49, above.

Case 2141, Inter-American Comm'n on Human Rights, OEA/ser.L./V./1154, doc. 9 rev. 1(1980). American Declaration of the Rights and Duties of man, Organisation of American States, OEA/ser.L./V./1.4 Rev.(1948), reprinted in OAS, Handbook of Existing Rules Pertaining to Human Rights, OEA/ser.L./V.11.50 doc. 6(1980).

Department's brief at 23.

Rubenfeld J. , “The Right of Privacy,” 102 Harvard Law Review. 737 (1989) at 791.

Savage M. , “The Law of Abortion in the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics and the People's Republic of China: Women's Rights in Two Socialist Countries,” 40 Stanford Law Rev. 1027 (1988) at 1050.

Ceausescu N. , cited in Der Spiegel, 20 Oct 1986.

David H.P. Fleischhacker J. and Höhn C. , “Abortion and Eugenics in Nazi Germany,” 14 Population and Development Rev. 81 (1988) at 94.

Id. at 81.

Id. at 94.

Cappelletti & Cohen, note 43 above, at 612.

S. Rep. No. 82 to accompany H.R. 2577(1985); 131 Congressional Record H5335–5355.

274 S.E. 2d 457 (Ga.1981); see generally Kolder V. Gallagher J. and Parsons M. , “Court Ordered Obstetrical Interventions,” 316 New England J. Med. 1987 1192 and Field M.A. , “Controlling the Woman to Protect the Fetus,” 17 Law, Med. & Health Care 1989:114.

In Re A.C., 533 A.2d 611 (D.C. App. 1987) reh'g granted and opinion vacated, No. 87–609 (March 17, 1988).

Several presenters at the Fifth International Congress on AIDS, held on June 4th-9th, 1989 in Montreal, pursued this theme.