In 1970, Congress enacted Title X of the Public Health Service Act (the Act), which provided federal funding for family planning services. Section 1008 of the Act prohibited the use of Title X federal funding “for programs where abortion [was] a method of family planning.” The Regulations to the Act (the Regulations), introduced by the …Read more

The Appellants brought this case challenging an amendment to the Minors’ Consent to Health Services Act (the Act) on the basis that it violated the Due Process and Equal Protection Clauses of the Fourteenth Amendment to the Constitution. Subdivision 2 of the Act provided, with certain exceptions, that no abortion shall be performed on a …Read more

The Respondents, including a facility that provides abortions, a physician who performs abortions, and a minor woman who sought an abortion, brought suit challenging the constitutional validity of Ohio’s Amended Substitute House Bill 319, which made it a criminal offence, except in four specified circumstances, for a physician or other person to perform an abortion …Read more

The Appellants, Y.G. and L.G, husband and wife, brought this common law tort claim of an invasion of privacy. At the time of the incident, the wife, L.G., was five months pregnant, bearing triplets conceived through in vitro fertilization (IVF) at and under the guidance of the Jewish Hospital of St. Louis (the Hospital). The …Read more

The appellant, Mr Borowski, challenged the validity of s 251(4), (5) and (6) of the Canadian Criminal Code on the basis that the provisions contravened the rights of the fetus. He argued these provisions allowed for abortions to occur in circumstances that were too liberal, and, as such, they infringed a fetus’s rights to life, …Read more

Canada Safeway Ltd. maintained a group insurance plan that included weekly benefits for loss of pay due to accident or illness. The plan excluded pregnant women from coverage during a seventeen week period before, during, and after pregnancy. During that period, the plan excluded pregnant women suffering from both pregnancy and non-pregnancy-related afflictions. For part …Read more

On November 5 1986, the Court of First Instance and Preliminary Investigations No. 10 of Malaga ordered the search of a medical clinic where criminal actions (specifically, the administration of abortions) were allegedly taking place. In so doing, information regarding the medical history of Ms. Ximena’s (the appellant) was recorded. On November 21, 1986, the …Read more

Reproductive Health Services (RHS), a non-profit organization, brought this class action suit challenging the constitutionality of a Missouri law (the Act) regulating the performance of abortions. The Act did the following: Set forth, in the preamble, that the “life of each human being begins at conception,” and that “unborn children have protectable interests in life, …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

Eve was a mentally disabled young woman suffering from a condition that made it extremely difficult for her to communicate with others. She was not capable of understanding the consequential relationship between intercourse, pregnancy and birth.  Mrs. E, her mother, was concerned that Eve might innocently become pregnant, which would mean that she, an elderly …Read more