Slavery, Abortion, and the Politics of Constitutional Meaning

by Justin Buckley Dyer (Author)

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ISBN-13: 978-1107680746

ISBN-10: 1107680743

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For the past forty years, prominent pro-life activists, judges, and politicians have invoked the history and legacy of American slavery to elucidate aspects of contemporary abortion politics. As is often the case, many of these popular analogies have been imprecise, underdeveloped, and historically simplistic. In Slavery, Abortion, and the Politics of Constitutional Meaning, Justin Buckley Dyer provides the first book-length scholarly treatment of the parallels between slavery and abortion in American constitutional development. In this fascinating and wide-ranging study, Dyer demonstrates that slavery and abortion really are historically, philosophically, and legally intertwined in America. The nexus, however, is subtler and more nuanced than is often suggested, and the parallels involve deep principles of constitutionalism.

Editorial Reviews

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"A brief review cannot do justice to a work as original, nuanced, and provocative as Slavery, Abortion, and the Politics of Constitutional Meaning. I hope it enjoys the wide, contentious, and fair-minded hearing that it deserves" - Jon Shields, Perspectives on Politics

"Dyer engages with a longstanding philosophical and moral debate about membership in the moral community and the parameters for inclusion in that community . . . Dyer's intervention into this debate challenges those who view membership in the moral community as attribute based." - Helena Silverstein, Law and Politics Book Review

"While scholars and specialists have already encountered much of this ground, they will benefit from a detailed and explicit analysis of the parallels between the logic of legal abortion and the logic of legal slavery -- and the ways in which they both brought contradictions into laws and public debate." - Nathaniel Peters, Public Discourse

"What is curiously new and striking is that a young scholar, accomplished in political theory and constitutional law, should take it upon himself to draw out the comparison [between slavery and abortion] explicitly with a careful, close tracking of cases, to show how the argument has been unfolded in both spheres: to deny the human standing of the slave and of the child in the womb." - Hadley Arkes, Claremont Review of Books

"This is a valuable book that is well written and provocative in the best academic sense." - John Brigham, Choice Reviews

Book Description

Justin Buckley Dyer provides the first book-length scholarly treatment of the parallels between slavery and abortion in American constitutional development.

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Product details

Publisher ‏ : ‎ Cambridge University Press (June 28, 2013)
Language ‏ : ‎ English
Paperback ‏ : ‎ 202 pages
ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 1107680743
ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-1107680746
Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 10.2 ounces
Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 5.5 x 0.47 x 8.5 inches

Best Sellers Rank: #2,847,357 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #1,594 in Constitutional Law (Books)
- #4,108 in General Constitutional Law
- #4,334 in Government

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a theologian in Texas

A solid work of scholarship

Reviewed in the United States on June 24, 2014

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Pro-life advocates often claim that there is an analogy between slavery and abortion, in that both involve viewing certain human beings as inferior in value and as controllable property. Pro-choice advocates usually wave off this sort of comparison as absurd. This book makes the waving off more difficult, as it builds a careful case for the reasonableness of the analogy, drawing on the author's extensive knowledge of American history and in particular the history of the Supreme Court's reflections on basic constitutional questions. Dyer suggests that the cultural struggle over abortion, which he calls 'constitutional disharmony after Roe,' results from our uneasiness over the meaning of the 14th amendment. How could an amendment that was used to expand the realm of rights in the 19th century be used to contract the realm of rights in the 20th? My only complaint about the book is that it could have provided a fuller narrative of the slow transformation in legal philosophy that made Roe possible, but perhaps the author did not think that was necessary because it had already been done by Hadley Arkes in Natural Rights and the Right to Choose. Overall, I recommend this book highly, not just to pro-lifers but also to pro-choicers because the latter need to know what they are up against in the realm of ideas.

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Slavery, Abortion, and the Politics of Constitutional Meaning

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