Notre Dame Law School NDLScholarship Journal Articles Publications 1989 Issues Raised by the Abortion Rescue Movement Charles E. Rice Notre Dame Law School,
[email protected] Follow this and additional works at: https://scholarship.law.nd.edu/law_faculty_scholarship Part of the Health Law and Policy Commons, and the Human Rights Law Commons Recommended Citation Charles E. Rice, Issues Raised by the Abortion Rescue Movement, 23 Suffolk U. L. Rev. 15 (1989). Available at: https://scholarship.law.nd.edu/law_faculty_scholarship/316 This Article is brought to you for free and open access by the Publications at NDLScholarship. It has been accepted for inclusion in Journal Articles by an authorized administrator of NDLScholarship. For more information, please contact
[email protected]. ISSUES RAISED BY THE ABORTION RESCUE MOVEMENT Charles E. Rice* The civil rights protests of the fifties and sixties taught the nation about the relation of the enacted law to the higher law of justice. Though less favorably publicized, the abortion rescue movement provides another such teaching moment today. As with the civil rights protests, the abor- tion rescue movement involves ordinary people putting their bodies on the line-and in jail-to vindicate their conception of justice. The rescue movement raises issues that transcend the question of whether one ap- proves or disapproves of abortion. This paper examines what society might learn from the Operation Rescue movement about the weaknesses of our law. A Newsweek commentary entitled Operation Rescue captured the movement's essence: Abortion is the most painfully divisive issue in American public life, and after years of relative dormancy, it shows signs of erupting again.