Word: psychologicall
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The discourse about women’s psychological trauma first entered the legal conversation concerning abortion with the 1973 Roe v. Wade decision, in which pro-choice proponents argued that abortions could prevent the distress caused by an unwanted childbirth, according to Suk.
But after Gonzales v. Carhart in 2007, psychological trauma has appeared in common legal decisions as an argument against abortion, Suk said.
Gonzales v. Carhart signaled a move in Supreme Court jurisdiction toward a restriction of abortion rights, and it drew a connection between the threat of psychological trauma and partial-birth abortion.
Jeannie Suk, a senior fellow at the Humanities Center, discussed at the Barker Center last night how the threat of psychological trauma experienced by women has affected the abortion debate.
Attendee J. Shoshanna Ehrlich, a Women’s Studies professor at University of Massachusetts Boston, questioned whether this shift in the discussion of psychological trauma was actually more indicative of an “effort to re-galvanize the anti-choice movement.”