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Article: Reproduction
- Article from:
- West's Encyclopedia of American Law
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 2005 The Gale Group, Inc. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
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REPRODUCTION
A woman's right to determine whether she will give birth was not legally recognized until the 1960s and 1970s, when U.S. Supreme Court decisions established that right. Until that time, women in the United States were denied access to birth control and to legal abortions by state criminal laws. Since the 1970s, there has been ongoing controversy over legalized abortion, with the Supreme Court allowing states to impose restrictions on obtaining the procedure. In addition, medical science has developed techniques of artificial insemination and in vitro fertilization that enable pregnancy. These advances, in turn, have created opportunities for surrogate motherhood, opening up ...