Word: health
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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This week a Supreme Court refashioned by Ronald Reagan will hear arguments in William L. Webster v. Reproductive Health Services, a case that could lead to Roe's being seriously weakened or even reversed. Either outcome would mean a new world, one in which abortions could be banned in many states or made greatly more difficult to get. After years in which court dictates let politicians dodge the whole roiling issue, abortion would be forced back into the political arena. Back to state legislatures and referenda. Back to lawmakers and voters...
...precisely the territory that many Americans occupy. Pollsters commonly find that about 40% of the public believe abortion should be available for any reason a woman may choose. A slightly higher percentage typically believe it should be available only in cases of rape, incest or to protect the health of the mother. But a large majority, usually around 70%, regularly say the decision to have an abortion should be left to the woman...
...written by Justice Blackmun, the Roe ruling forbids states to restrict a woman's right to abortion in the first twelve weeks of pregnancy. In the second trimester states may restrict abortion only to safeguard the mother's health. Though the court decided that the fetus was not a "person" under the law, it did recognize that states had an interest in protecting "potential life." Because the fetus was considered viable in the final twelve weeks, states were permitted to ban third-trimester abortions, except those necessary to preserve the health of the mother...
Since then, several state legislatures have attempted to test just what restrictions are allowable under Roe. The court has permitted states and the Federal Government to forbid the use of Medicaid funds to pay for abortions that are not necessary to preserve the mother's health. Most other state laws that restrict abortion have been rebuffed by the Justices, but by ever slimmer margins. In 1986, the last time the court took up an abortion case, only a 5- to-4 majority could be mustered to strike down a Pennsylvania "informed consent" law that required women seeking abortion...
State budgets have been severely strained by a combination of dwindling help from the debt-ridden national Government and Washington-mandated increases in spending for catastrophic health care and nursing homes. State officials also blame some unexpected consequences of the 1986 federal tax-reform law. Late in 1986 taxpayers rushed to sell securities and property before capital-gains taxes jumped from 20% to a current maximum of 33%. Some state planners rosily assumed this high revenue would continue. Cigarette smokers will pay for the miscalculation...