Roe V. Wade Essay

The appellant's and appellee's had specific arguments when the second appeal came around. The appellant's argued that the ninth and fourteenth amendments strongly support the right to abortion. The defense questioned Dr. Hallford's role in the case but the prosecution came back with the comment that he was not an original filer of the suit so if he is inappropriate, it should not affect the case. Their third argument stated, "the state could not actually tell when the moment of death actually occurred - during an abortion or beforehand. She (Weddington) concluded that, just as there could be no presumption of life without proof, neither could there be a presumption of death without proof." (Herda, 65) The appellee's argument was not as straight foreword. They argued that

The irony of this justification is that this amendment guarantees that states will not “deprive any person of life,” yet it is being used to take away the lives of the unborn. The court saw the state’s protection of citizen’s liberty as extending to a women’s right to have an abortion. The usage of the 14th amendment

It was found in the Griswold v Connecticut case that the right to privacy in this amendment protected a married couples decision to use birth control. The right to privacy then protected when someone is ready to bear children, how they wished to educate their children, or to be single or married. This in turn protects the right of a woman to decide when she wishes to bear children, and gives her the right to her body. The Supreme Court would not be able to overturn the decision made in Roe v Wade because of this amendment. In Roe v Wade, the Supreme Court decided that the, “woman’s right is ‘fundamental’, meaning that governmental attempts to interfere with the right are subject to ‘strict scrutiny’”

Norma McCorvey, who was unable to care for her ready born child felt that abortion was the only solution for her unborn child. But with Texas law only allowing abortions as a means of saving the life of a mother, she was denied the right to an abortion. That’s when Texas lawyers, who were trying desperately to bring a “lawsuit of change”, felt that McCorvey’s case was the one they needed. Unfortunately for Norma, Roe v. Wade was not passed in time for her to abort her baby. Her lawyers argued the woman’s right to abortion was protected by the 9th amendment, being that the denying abortion was a violation of the right to privacy. Abortion ties into privacy; the right to privacy ties into the 1st, 4th, 9th and 14th amendments.

The majority opinion of the case, which was ruled in favor of the plaintiff, was delivered by Justice Harry Blackmun. The Court held the opinion that the fundamental right of a married or single woman, to decide whether or not to have children, is spelled under the Ninth Amendment through the Fourteenth Amendment of the Constitution. Therefore, the Texas’s criminal abortion statutes were void as they were constituted in a manner that violates the plaintiff’s Ninth Amendment rights and they were unconstitutionally vague. The court also held that an array of Texas statutes criminalizing abortion in most cases violated a woman’s constitutional right to privacy, which it found to be implicit in the liberty guarantee of the due process clause of

In 1973, the Supreme Court legalized abortion in the Roe v. Wade case. The law of abortion is important because it has to do with the decision of choosing to end the life of an unborn child. It allows women to decide whether or not they are prepared to carry a child inside of them over the course of nine months. Over time there has been a lot of debate on whether or not a woman should be allowed to make this decision, and on certain restrictions that should be applied to these cases. In the past decades there have been many court cases and laws that have either supported pro-life groups or challenged them.

     Until a pregnant single woman, by the fictional name of Jane Roe, challenged the Texas criminal abortion law, the decision whether or not to terminate the pregnancy was left entirely up to the State. Justice Blackmun, along with six other justices, argued that the decision to abort should be available to the woman-but only up to a certain point during the pregnancy. In order to decide when the decision should fall from the woman's hands to the States, the court resolved to divide the pregnancy into three trimesters. During the first trimester, the State is not liable to regulate. The decision to abort is therefore left to the woman and her physician. This is so because until the end of the first trimester, morality in abortions is less than in normal childbirth. For the subsequent trimester, the State may only regulate the abortion procedure and where the procedure is administered. Once into the third trimester, the State can deny the right to abort entirely, but only if the health or life of the mother is implicated. These trimesters allow the state at liberty to place multiplying restrictions on abortion as the gestation lengthens.

In a seven to two decision written by Justice Harry Blackmun, who was chosen because of prior experience as counsel of a nonprofit medical research group and practice called the Mayo Clinic, the Supreme Court ruled that the Texas law violated Roe 's right to privacy (White 32). The Court contended that the First, Fourth, Ninth, and Fourteenth Amendments protect an individual 's privacy, otherwise known as a “zone of privacy”, against state laws and referenced past cases which ruled contraception, marriage, and even child rearing as activities covered in a "zone of privacy” (Paltrow 17). The Court then proceeded to argue that this zone of privacy was "broad enough to encompass a woman 's decision whether or not to terminate her pregnancy” (Paltrow 17). This decision was influenced by and addresses the innumerable psychological, physical, and economic stresses a pregnant woman faces.

     Have you ever wondered how abortion came to be legal? It was decided in the Supreme Court case of Roe v. Wade. The 1973 Roe v. Wade decision was a major landmark in not only the abortion issue, but also in American government.

But in January of 1973, when the Supreme Court announced their decision in Roe v. Wade, the Supreme Court took on new life, as its decision pronounced the Court a maker of public policy. Through Roe v. Wade, the Supreme Court created the blueprints for a national abortion policy. A policy that declared a woman’s right to an abortion unconditionally protected by the constitutional right to personal privacy. The framework, the general principle of Roe v. Wade was properly decided. The Constitutional right of personal privacy should be interpreted to include a woman’s right to obtain an abortion. However, some areas of the Court’s decision are flawed, particularly their decision to divide pregnancy into trimesters.

Before the 1973 ruling of the case of Roe v Wade, the estimated average number of illegal abortions every year ranged from 200,000 to 1.5 million. The methods used were violently dangerous including women ingesting toxic substances such as bleach and detergents which often times was ineffective. Women around the country were concerned that the anti-abortion laws conflicted with a person’s right to privacy and equal protection given by the Fourth and Fourteenth Amendments of the Constitution. Gale University’s William Sullivan explains ”The right to abort unborn children is not specifically protected by the Constitution, and prior to 1973, abortion legislation had been understood to be limited to the power of the states per the Tenth

The attorneys for Roe argued that the law was unfair and unjust. They said that the unborn fetus id not a real person. They pointed out that a women should have the right to control their own life and body. They said it was a right of privacy and if women fell that it’s the right choice to abort a baby they should be allowed to make it. They also said that women should be able to abort a baby if the birth of the baby

The ruling of Roe v. Wade included three key ideas. The first key idea was that women had the right to choose to have an abortion during the stage of pregnancy when the fetus had little chance of survival outside the womb and that women were able to obtain an abortion within unreasonable interferences from the state. The second idea confirmed a state’s power to restrict abortions when a fetus could live outside the womb, except in the case when the mother’s life was at risk. The final key idea that was decided in the ruling was that the state has interests in both the health of the women and the life of the fetus (Brannen and Hanes, 2001).

The case began in 1970, when Norma McCorvey, also known as Jane Roe, began seeking a legal abortion. Jane Roes attorney, Sarah Weddington, understood her position because she became pregnant when she was attending law school. Weddington was also working three jobs but could barely afford the procedure (Gold & Donovan, 2017, pp. 58-59). Women were afraid to have abortions due to the risks they would have to take like crossing the Mexico–United States border or other health related risks. Countless abortions either resulted in death or painful infections that would lead to more problems. In fact, untrained doctors would attempt to perform these procedures with no anesthetics and unfit equipment. “As late as 1965, illegal abortion accounted for an estimated 17 percent of all officially

In 1973, the Supreme Court made a decision in one of the most controversial cases in history, the case of Roe v. Wade (410 U.S. 113 (1973)), in which abortion was legalized and state anti-abortion statues were struck down for being unconstitutional. This essay will provide a brief history and analysis of the issues of this case for both the woman’s rights and the states interest in the matter. Also, this essay will address the basis for the court ruling in Roe’s favor and the effects this decision has had on subsequent cases involving a woman’s right to choose abortion in the United States. The court’s decision created legal precedent for several subsequent abortion restriction cases and has led to the development of legislation to protect women’s health rights. Although the Supreme Court’s decision in Roe v. Wade was a historic victory for women’s rights, it is still an extremely controversial subject today and continues to be challenged by various groups.