Pro-Choice and Anti-Abortion: Constitutional Theory and Public Policy

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Description

Bowers argues that, when correctly interpreted and applied, the Constitution and the theory of liberty on which it is based require government to reject the conventional pro-choice and anti-abortion perspectives as too extreme and incomplete. Instead, this book sets forth a position that government is constitutionally obligated to approach abortion policy from a middle perspective. Relying on a jurisprudence of original theory, Pro-Choice and Anti-Abortion forcefully asserts that government is constitutionally constrained to formulate abortion policy that is at once pro-choice and anti-abortion. In so arguing, this book walks readers through this constitutionally mandated middle position by introducing them to the liberal teachings of John Locke that were so influential to the framers of the Constitution and by applying this political theory to the major issues of the abortion controversy--including the individual liberty interest in the abortion decision, minors and abortions, the liberty interest of the fetal-being, and the Freedom of Choice Act.

Author Bio

JAMES R. BOWERS is an Assistant Professor of Political Science at St. John Fisher College in Rochester, New York. He is the author of Regulating the Regulators: An Introduction to the Legislative Oversight of Administrative Rulemaking (Praeger, 1990) and American Stories: Case Studies in Politics and Government.