Abortion Access in Religious Nations with Deep Societal Divisions: Lessons the United States Can Take from Abortion Reform in Ireland and South Africa

In July of 2022, the Supreme Court of the United States overturned decades of precedent by holding that certain substantive rights, including the right to choose to have an abortion in the first trimester of pregnancy, no longer exist. The Court’s decision impacted the quality and availability of reproductive care in numerous states across America and forced healthcare providers to prioritize arbitrary, confusing regulations over the health and well-being of pregnant patients. Tensions between liberal and conservative states are rising as state representatives respond to the Supreme Court’s decision with overt, sweeping legislation. In order to emerge from this era intact, the United States should look to other nations with similar political and social structures that have successfully modernized their abortion laws. This Note makes three contributions. First, it describes the issues in a post-Dobbs America. Second, the Note explains how both Ireland and South Africa, two religious nations with deep political divisions, were able to revise policy that restricted abortion access and devise policy that protected and expanded abortion access. Third, it proposes a few different strategies that activists and lawmakers in the United States may employ to modernize abortion laws domestically

Abortion Access in Religious Nations with Deep Societal Divisions: Lessons the United States Can Take from Abortion Reform in Ireland and South Africa

In July of 2022, the Supreme Court of the United States overturned decades of precedent by holding that certain substantive rights, including the right to choose to have an abortion in the first trimester of pregnancy, no longer exist. The Court’s decision impacted the quality and availability of reproductive care in numerous states across America and forced healthcare providers to prioritize arbitrary, confusing regulations over the health and well-being of pregnant patients. Tensions between liberal and conservative states are rising as state representatives respond to the Supreme Court’s decision with overt, sweeping legislation. In order to emerge from this era intact, the United States should look to other nations with similar political and social structures that have successfully modernized their abortion laws. This Note makes three contributions. First, it describes the issues in a post-Dobbs America. Second, the Note explains how both Ireland and South Africa, two religious nations with deep political divisions, were able to revise policy that restricted abortion access and devise policy that protected and expanded abortion access. Third, it proposes a few different strategies that activists and lawmakers in the United States may employ to modernize abortion laws domestically

Groundwater and Surface-Water Interactions along Lower Medano Creek, Great Sand Dunes National Monument, Colorado

The objectives of this investigation are as follows: 1) review the existing hydrogeologic data for the San Luis Valley, the Great Sand Dunes Monument, and Medano Creek; 2) review the surface-water data that have been collected on Medano Creek; 3) collect or review previously collected water-level data obtained in the area of lower Medano Creek and correlate them with the surface-water data; 4) conduct constant-head permeameter tests on sand samples collected near the ground surface along lower Medano Creek; 5) produce a conceptual model of lower Medano Creek; and 6) produce a numerical model of lower Medano Creek that will predict the effect that a lowering of the regional water table could have on the terminus of flow of Medano Creek. The complex hydrogeologic conditions under lower Medano Creek have been approximated with three homogeneous and anisotropic layers. A complex system of confining layers is represented by a single low-hydraulic-conductivity layer in the middle. Numerical-modeling results suggest that the location of the terminus of flow in Medano Creek will recede significantly in response to a lowering of the regional water table, possibly by as much as 21,000 feet (6,400 meters) if the regional water table is lowered 150 feet (46 meters). These results indicate the qualitative effect that a lowering of the regional water table would have on lower Medano Creek, but they cannot be considered to be precise quantitative predictions. The results should be regarded with caution due to the paucity of data available

Persistence of Perception

None provided

Real Estate and Stating the Real in Jean Echenoz\u27s L\u27Occupation des sols

Through its extremely minimal account of the aftermath of an apartment fire, Jean Echenoz\u27s L\u27Occupation des sols raises intriguing questions about the grounding of property—its occupation des sols—in Western consciousness. The narrative situation allegorizes the longstanding convention in which man is associated with property ownership while woman is associated with property itself. Though seeming to uphold this paradigm, Echenoz presents a challenging perspective of the functions that gendered scenarios of property perform in sustaining symbolic relations and anchoring the real in Western thought

Industrial Field for Foresters

In normal times the industrial field offers many opportunities for foresters. Foresters who can show a manufacturer ways to improve his product or reduce costs will always have openings for employment

Horse Meadows and Bohler Canyon Arborglyphs: History Recorded on the Trees

In this close reading of Arborglyphs in canyons above the Mono Basin, the authors discuss how and why Basque shepherds and others carved their names with knives into (mostly) Aspens. Documenting these expressive markings is one way to reclaim the shepherd-artists\u27 names and something of their experiences in the High Sierra tending their flocks

The effect of fluorescein, EDTA, and thimerosal on the rate of tear breakup in man

This study was undertaken to determine what effect if any that fluorescein, thimerosal, or EDTA would have on tear breakup time. It was found that fluorescein would significantly reduce tear breakup time in man. EDTA and thimerosal as administered in this study had no significant effect on tear breakup time in man

Development and Validation of a Spontaneous Smile Assay

IMPORTANCE Smiling can be a voluntary or involuntarymovement. Facial reanimation procedures differ in their ability to restore a spontaneous smile, and an assay designed to evoke and evaluate a spontaneous smile is not available. OBJECTIVE To develop and validate an assay to assess the spontaneous smile of patients with facial paralysis. DESIGN, SETTING, AND PARTICIPANTS Thiswas an exploratory cohort study. A series of short video clips were administered to laypersons via an online survey service from January 1, 2014, to March 31, 2014. Respondents rated how funny each video was on a visual analog scale from 0 to 100. The 4 funniest videos were selected to generate a 11/2-minute spontaneous smile assay. The assay was then administered from July 1, 2014, to December 31, 2014, to 2 different study groups: the first was composed of 100 healthy individuals (control group) and the second was composed of 30 patients with facial paralysis.We analyzed the capability of this assay to provoke at least 1 spontaneous smile and calculated smile excursion in both groups. Statistical analysis was performed using analysis of variance. INTERVENTION Spontaneous smile assay administered to both healthy and diseased groups. MAIN OUTCOMES AND MEASURES Ability of the assay to elicit smiles, as defined by an oral commissure excursion greater than 3 mm, as well as difference in commissure excursion. RESULTS Ninety-five (95.0%) participants in the control group and 29 (96.7%) patients with facial paralysis experienced at least 1 oral commissure excursion that appeared to be a spontaneous smile while viewing the assay. Mean oral commissure excursion with spontaneous smile was 9.08mm(95%CI, 2.77-15.39) in controls, 6.72mm(95%CI, 3.13-10.31) on the healthy side in patients with flaccid facial paralysis (P=.004 vs controls), and 9.64mm(95%CI, 3.52-15.76) on the healthy side in patients with nonflaccid facial paralysis (P=.74). Among patients with flaccid facial paralysis, a statistically significant difference was found between smile excursion of the affected and the unaffected sides (P = .03). There was no statistically significant difference in the measurement between sides for the control group (P = .67). CONCLUSIONS AND RELEVANCE Although humor is a challenging construct to universalize, our assay was able to elicit a smile in almost all individuals in the group with facial paralysis and the control group. The spontaneous smile assay will facilitate future research on the ability of facial reanimation procedures and other interventions to restore a spontaneous smile