Recently, a 10-year-old child from my daughter’s class asked me this pertinent question: “What’s the point of learning your lesson if you never get a chance to show that you did?” The answer is simple: not much. Unfortunately, rehabilitation is often not at the heart of criminal justice reform. In fact, the harshness of a punishment is frequently not determined by the possibility of recidivism, but rather by public opinion and as a result misses the point.
I often hear the question from African-American women, “What do they [the right] want? We either have too many kids or too many abortions. Which is it?” The truth is, to them, it’s both.
A federal court decides there is no precedent for charging a woman with a criminal abortion. At least, not yet.
The Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals finds a limit to what states can pass in the name of restricting abortion access: criminal prosecutions of terminated pregnancies.
Women were once seen as “second victims” of abortion. Now, as women face murder trials for unintended pregnancy losses, they’re potential fodder for a prison system that is steadily becoming one of the biggest businesses in the country.
Will the McCormack/Hearn lawsuit open up access to abortion for everyone?
A part of keeping families safe and secure is making sure that in times of misfortune, children and their parents are able to communicate.
Must “restoring the historic right to life accorded to unborn children” require that women, including new mothers who have given birth, go to prison?
Race, class, ethnicity, and sex still determine, to a great degree, how justice is dispensed and whether people are treated justly by the United States legal system. Recent news stories and hard data show just how far we remain from Martin Luther King’s “promised land.”
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The response to a Newsweek profile on Jennie McCormack by anti-choicers has been a bit of a head-scratcher.
