The parents of a mentally-disabled woman requested that the court authorize the sterilization of their daughter.  According to the Article 428 of the Criminal Code made in accordance with Article 6 LO 3/89 of 21 June (the “challenged provision”), sterilization of a disabled person who suffered from serious psychological deficiency would not be unlawful if the …Read more

Women inmates in the District of Columbia (D.C.) correctional system alleged that they were being mistreated in a variety of ways, including sexual harassment, failure to provide or inadequate levels of obstetrical and gynecological care, unequal educational and work-related programming  as compared to similarly situated male inmates, uneven recreational and religious time, and general inhumane …Read more

Section 251(4) of the Criminal Code of Canada (the Code) permitted abortions to be performed only at accredited hospitals and then with approval from the performing hospital’s therapeutic abortion committee. Drs. Morgentaler, Smoling, and Scott had together established an abortion clinic in Toronto to perform abortions not approved by a therapeutic abortion committee.  Following public …Read more

The first defendant was a fourteen and a half year old girl who became pregnant after being raped by a family friend. Her parents (second and third defendants) reported the rape to the police and inquired whether there was a process available to test the paternity of the fetus before the defendants aborted the pregnancy …Read more

“Marion” was a fourteen year old girl with an “intellectual disability”, severe deafness, epilepsy, an ataxic gait and “behavioural problems”. She could not care for herself. Her parents proposed that Marion undertake a hysterectomy and an ovarienectomy (the Procedures). The hysterectomy was proposed to prevent natural pregnancy and menstruation and the psychological and behavioural consequences …Read more

The Applicants were two Irish companies that provided counseling to pregnant women, Open Door Counselling Ltd. and Dublin Well Woman Centre Ltd.; two counselors who worked for Dublin Well Woman, Bonnie Maher and Ann Downes; and two women of childbearing age, Mrs. X and Mrs. Geraghty. The Society for the Protection of Unborn Children brought …Read more

Planned Parenthood brought suit challenging the Pennsylvania Abortion Control Act of 1982 (the Act) in federal court on constitutional grounds. The Act included the following requirements for women seeking an abortion in Pennsylvania: A woman seeking an abortion must give her informed consent prior to the abortion procedure, and she must provide certain information at …Read more

The Appellants, a class of current and future employees of the Respondent’s battery manufacturing company, Johnson Controls, brought suit claiming that the company’s policy of barring fertile women from employment for reasons based on occupational safety, constituted sex discrimination in violation of Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 (the Act). The primary …Read more

Two groups of petitioners, one pro-life and the other pro-choice, challenged provisions regulating abortion in Article 29(4) of the Health Act, Decree 76/1988. (XI.3.) MT, and its implementing Decree 15/1988. (XII. 15) SZEM. Article 29(4) established that abortion would be permitted in circumstances outlined under the regulations. The implementing regulations in Decree 15/1988 provided that …Read more

The petitioner, Dr. Zsuzsanna Gábor, challenged the constitutionality of Hungary’s law that required women to be married and under forty years of age in order to undergo artificial insemination. The law was challenged on the grounds that it discriminated based on age and marital status, which was prohibited under Article 70 of Hungary’s constitution.