title: Back to the future of abortion law: Roe's rejection of America's history and traditions.
abstract: In Roe v. Wade much of Justice Blackmun's judgment was devoted to the history of abortion in Anglo-American law. He concluded that a constitutional right to abortion was consistent with that history. In Webster v. Reproductive Health Services, 281 American historians signed an amicus brief which claimed that Roe was consistent with the nation's history and traditions. This article respectfully questions Justice Blackmun's conclusion and the historians' claim.
authors.affiliation: Kennedy Institute of Ethics, Georgetown University, USA.
authors.forename: John
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Keown
mesh_terms: D000029:Abortion, Legal / Q000266:history* / Q000331:legislation & jurisprudence; D005260:Female; D049673:History, 20th Century; D006801:Humans; D011247:Pregnancy; D014481:United States