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.

‘I cannot think of another scholarly book that addresses the abortion/slavery analogy in such a comprehensive manner. Professor Dyer skilfully ties the rhetorical use of the slavery analogy in the abortion debate to the substantive philosophical and legal questions on which the debates over slavery and abortion hinge. This analysis of the conceptual parallels between the pro-life and anti-slavery movements is fascinating. Sometimes, the best way to understand one’s present situation is to look for analogous cases elsewhere - either in the past or in the present - about which there seems to be clarity.’

Francis Beckwith - Baylor University

'As Justin Buckley Dyer shows in Slavery, Abortion, and the Politics of Constitutional Meaning, disturbing parallels exist between the debate over slavery before the Civil War and the debate over abortion now … Dyer’s assertion of the moral foundation of America may be difficult to enact, but that does not make it false.'

Andrew Evans Source: The Washington Free Beacon