The Appellants challenged the constitutional validity of a Massachusetts law that required, in every instance, that the parents or guardian of a minor seeking an abortion be notified. The joined Appellants were an abortion clinic and a pregnant minor representing the class of unmarried minors in Massachusetts who had adequate capacity to give valid and …Read more

The Respondents, a licensed obstetrician and several non-profit organizations, brought suit claiming that § 5(a) of the Pennsylvania Abortion Control Act of 1974 (the Act) was unconstitutionally vague. Section 5(a) of the Act required every person who performed or induced an abortion to have made a determination, based on “experience, judgment or professional competence,” that …Read more

Title XIX of the Social Security Act establishes the Medicaid program under which participating States may provide federally funded medical assistance to needy persons. Title XIX requires that state Medicaid plans establish “reasonable standards . . . for determining . . . the extent of medical assistance under the plan which . . . are …Read more

In 1975, the Constitutional Court of Germany struck down a law that decriminalized abortion in the first trimester of pregnancy. The applicants claimed that the resulting amendment to the German criminal code, which criminalized abortion (except under certain circumstances) in the first trimester of pregnancy violated Article 8 (right to a private life) of the European Convention on …Read more

Petitioners challenged the constitutional validity of regulations contained in the Social Security Act (‘the Act’) of Connecticut which limited Medicaid benefits for first trimester abortions to those that are “medically necessary”. For a benefit to be paid, the regulations required the submission of a written request by the pregnant woman, a physician’s certificate of medical …Read more

The Respondent brought a class action suit alleging constitutional rights violations after her request for a nontherapeutic abortion was refused by a public hospital in St. Louis.  Doe’s inability to obtain an abortion resulted from two factors, a personally motivated policy directive by the Mayor which prohibited the performance of abortions in the city hospitals …Read more

Petitioners brought this action against the Attorney General of Missouri, seeking to enjoin enforcement of House Committee Substitute for House Bill No. 1211 (the Act), which attempted to regulate both the abortion procedure and the circumstances surrounding such procedures. Petitioners claimed the Act violated the right to privacy under the due process clause of the …Read more

Appellant Bigelow was the managing editor of a newspaper. An edition of the paper, under which appellant had direct responsibility, contained an advertisement for abortion services summarized by the Court as follows: [T]he advertisement announced that the Women’s Pavilion of New York City would help women with unwanted pregnancies to obtain “immediate placement in accredited …Read more

Please note: This opinion is unusual as it does not include the factual background. These facts listed below are developed from alternative sources. Before the promulgation of the Voluntary Interruption of Pregnancy Act, 88 senators made a referral to the French constitutional court challenging the constitutionality of the new bill according to article 61 of …Read more

Mary Doe, under a pseudonym, was a married, twenty-two year old mother living in Georgia. At the time of this case, she already had three children, two in foster care and the third given up for adoption due to her inability to provide for them. She sought an abortion from the Grady Memorial Hospital Abortion …Read more