Pregnancy Decision Making: Abortion and Adoption

Pregnancy decision making encompasses a large range of interactions, including decisions and actions to avoid pregnancy or to become pregnant. This entry addresses the question of decision making regarding the outcome of a pregnancy: abortion or taking the pregnancy to term, with the latter resulting in parenting or adoption placement. Adolescents' pregnancy decision making has been a special area of focus for some decades now, particularly regarding whether adolescents are capable of making termination-of-pregnancy decisions. This entry highlights controversies concerning, first, teenage pregnancy as a social problem; second, risk research that seeks to outline the consequences of various reproductive decisions; third, questions around adolescents' maturity regarding making reproductive decisions; fourth, the reasons provided for various reproductive decisions; and, finally, issues surrounding the autonomy of young pregnant women in their reproductive decisions

Beyond Imagination?: The January 6 Insurrection

The United States is a nation of laws, and its Constitution and the rule of law have allowed it to confront and successfully navigate many threats to democracy throughout the nation’s complex history, including a Civil War. All of these threats challenged the nation in various ways, but never has there been a challenge to the truth of our elections like what happened on January 6, 2021. The Insurrection represents a turning point in America’s history. In addition to the unprecedented assault on the U.S. Capitol, members of the government sought to undermine an election and supported an attack on the government. Exposing the issues that led us to January 6, Beyond Imagination? brings together 14 deans of American law schools to examine the day’s events and how we got there, from a legal perspective, in hopes of moving the nation forward towards healing and a recommitment to the rule of law and the Constitution

Teen Health Care Decisions : How Maturity and Social Policy Affect Four Hard Cases

34 pagesLegal standards that allow teens to make health care decisions, or any important decisions, must account for the contingency and variability of minors’ capacity. Traditional law denied minors’ legal authority to make any decisions, giving all power to parents. This rule goes too far; the Supreme Court has held that minors have constitutionally protected autonomy-based rights, and modern views about adolescence are inconsistent with the rule. The question is how and where to draw lines. Legal standards are based on minors’ evolving maturity, policy favoring decisions that follow medical advice, and policy supporting parental authority. This paper uses four hard cases to show how these considerations factor into legal rules