Abstract
In the Supreme Court’s decision in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health, the Court rejected the existence of a constitutional right to abortion and obliterated the only federal protection of abortion. Two years after the Court’s decision, Congress has not passed federal legislation protecting abortion, and our country has no national standard on abortion access. In the meantime, in states with draconian abortion restrictions, women are forced to wait until they are at death’s door before the state allows them to have an abortion. This occurs despite the majority of Americans supporting some form of abortion access.
Although potential legislation protecting abortion could rely upon constitutional authority from the Commerce Clause, Spending Clause, or Section Five of the Fourteenth Amendment, this Article posits a fourth source of constitutional authority: an international agreement implemented via a congressional-executive agreement. After the Supreme Court’s vehement rejection of abortion protections in Dobbs, Congress should take extra care to ensure that the constitutional authority supporting abortion legislation will hold strong in the face of judicial review. This Article argues that enacting abortion legislation via a congressional-executive agreement would provide strong constitutional authority for protecting abortion access domestically and promote reproductive freedoms on a global level.
Recommended Citation
Amanda V. Landaverde,
Using a Congressional-Executive Agreement to Protect Abortion at Home and Abroad,
103 Neb. L. Rev. 99
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Available at: https://digitalcommons.unl.edu/nlr/vol103/iss1/6