Slavery, Abortion, and the Politics of Constitutional Meaning

Download or read book Slavery, Abortion, and the Politics of Constitutional Meaning written by Justin Buckley Dyer and published by Cambridge University Press. This book was released on 2013-06-28 with total page 207 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: For the past forty years, prominent pro-life activists, judges and politicians have invoked the history and legacy of American slavery to elucidate aspects of contemporary abortion politics. As is often the case, many of these popular analogies have been imprecise, underdeveloped and historically simplistic. In Slavery, Abortion, and the Politics of Constitutional Meaning, Justin Buckley Dyer provides the first book-length scholarly treatment of the parallels between slavery and abortion in American constitutional development. In this fascinating and wide-ranging study, Dyer demonstrates that slavery and abortion really are historically, philosophically and legally intertwined in America. The nexus, however, is subtler and more nuanced than is often suggested, and the parallels involve deep principles of constitutionalism.