Abortion: The Supreme Case Of Roe V. Wade

There is one remarkable legal battle that changed the American abortion laws to what they are now, Roe v. Wade. It took place in 1973 in Texas. Roe, Norma McCorvey, was an anonymous plaintiff against the State. The ruling, abortion is legal. It gives the mother the right of whether or not to terminated her pregnancy. However, that does not give the woman the right to terminate her pregnancy for any reason during all nine months. ?The court said that the woman may have an abortion until fetal viability, the time at which it first becomes realistically possible for a fetus to live outside the woman?s body. At that point the state?s interest

In the year 1970, it was illegal for women in many states to get an abortion. One day, a woman named Jane Roe wished to challenge those laws which kept her from getting what she wanted: an abortion. Her stand against these laws was, is, and will always be controversial among American citizens and people around the world. The historical court case in which this occurred was called Roe v. Wade, and was caused by the events of one woman and many factors of the country in which she called home.

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.

     Abortion has always been an extremely controversial issue. There are, and will probably always be many different views concerning the ethical acceptability as well as the social policy aspects of abortion. In fact, before the decision made in the famous court case of Roe v. Wade, abortion was morally wrong and was constituted as a crime that could lead to a prison sentence of up to five years. In Roe v. Wade, many unsettled questions were avowed and discussed.

Henry Wade represented the Texas state law to prohibit abortion. Eventually, the case came to a close and was decided on January 22, 1973. Ever since the case of Roe v. Wade, there have been approximately 1.5 million legal abortions each year (Edwards III, Wattenberg, and Lineberry 131).

Norma McCorvey who was the plaintiff took on “Jane Roe” as her alias to protect her real identity. The case was originally filed on Roe’s behalf but it was transformed into a class action suit so that McCorvey could represent all pregnant women. The defendant was Henry B. Wade, the district attorney of Dallas County, Texas. Roe had two major hurdles to get over:

It states in the decision of Roe v. Wade that, “The constitution does not define “person” in so many words” (http://www.tourolaw.edu/patch/Roe/ 18). The amendment discusses “person” 3 times in it, but it does not indicate that it has any possible pre-natal relevance; this is what made the abortion issue so hard. The state court ruled in favor of Roe, but the verdict was not strong enough to change the arrest of abortion doctors in Texas because the exact part that dealt with the right to privacy could not be decided

Abortion has always been an exceptionally debatable topic, since so many people each have their own ideas and beliefs. Even today in America, normal people as well as politicians are still discussing and arguing over this very controversial topic. One Supreme Court case, known as Roe v. Wade, dealt with a Texas law outlawing abortions except in certain cases. A woman named Jane Roe wanted an abortion and eventually made her way up to the Supreme Court, where the judges essentially set down the rules for abortions. Roe argued that the Texas law violated the First, Fourth, Fifth, Ninth, and Fourteenth Amendments of the Constitution. The Supreme Court agreed and ruled in favor of Roe, making the Texas law unconstitutional. Roe v. Wade is an exceedingly controversial case about abortion, but the judges undoubtedly made the proper decision in allowing abortion to be up to the woman and her doctor in the first trimester of pregnancy.

The American public turned to the Supreme Court to seek a resolution for the abortion conflict. Interest groups from both sides of the abortion spectrum realized their ability to effect abortion policy was much greater if fought in the courtroom, “litigation offered the

Alternatively, McCorvey’s friends encouragingly suggested she lie and say that her pregnancy was the result of her being raped. McCorvey was not able to provide evidence of which would prove her claim of rape to be true so she was not granted the right to abort her fetus. She then was left with a limitation of options, one being an illegal abortion clinic that she soon found out had been shut down by the police, and the other option being an old abandoned building where McCorvey stated "dirty instruments were scattered around the room, and there was dried blood on the floor.” McCorvey believed it was against the constitutional rights of american citizens to restrict the rights of abortion. These restricting laws were believes by many women to trap them into unfavorable alternatives such as self abortion or abortions performed by unlicensed beings with unsanitary surroundings and equipment. Desperate, McCorvey agreed to participate in a lawsuit against Henry Wade in efforts to make a difference for women around the world with the hopes of retaining her anonymity. An article on encyclopedia.com concerning the Roe v Wade case and it’s background states, “McCorvey chose to remain anonymous for several reasons: she feared publicity would hurt her five-year-old daughter, her parents were against abortion, and she had lied about being raped” (p.9) thus Norma McCorvey was known as Jane Roe in the now infamous case of as Roe v.

January 23, 2000 marked the twenty-seventh anniversary of the Roe v. Wade case. It all started out in a small town in Texas where a woman under the alias Jane Roe filed a case in district court for a woman’s right to choose abortion. At this time law in Texas prohibited abortion. Eventually the case moved to Supreme Court.

In 1973, Norma McCovery who is also known as Jane Roe brought a case to the Supreme Court. She and her defense team claimed that the 1859 Texas abortion law violated women’s constitutional right to have an abortion. Before reaching the Supreme Court, this case, which was a class-action suit, was argued in a Dallas Fifth Circuit Court on May 23, 1970. The judges in Dallas ruled that the Texas law violated Roe’s right to privacy which is found in both the Ninth and Fourteenth Amendment, so this case was then sent to the U.S. Supreme Court (Brannen and Hanes, 2001).

Abortion is the termination of pregnancy before birth, resulting in, or accompanied by the death of the fetus. ("Abortion," Encarta 98). In 1973, the U.S. Supreme Court decision, Roe v. Wade, dramatically changed the legal landscape of American abortion law. The result of the ruling required abortion to be legal for any woman; regardless of her age and for any reason during the first seven months of pregnancy, and for almost any reason after that. ("Status of Abortion in America"). In the Roe v. Wade case, Roe (Norma McCorvey), had claimed she was gang raped and attempted to have an abortion in Texas. ("Roe and Doe"). After hearing the case, the Supreme Court ruled that an American’s right to privacy included the right of a woman whether or not to have children, and the right of a woman and her doctor to make that decision without state interference, at least in the first trimester of pregnancy. ("Celebrating 25 Years of Reproductive Choice"). The moral issue of abortion—whether or not it is murder—has been debated since it was legalized in 1973. Roe v. Wade has been one of the most controversial Supreme Court decisions of the 20th century. ("Roe No More"). More than two decades since the Supreme Court first upheld a woman’s right to abortion, the debate over the morality and legality of induced abortion continues in the United States. ("Abortion," Encarta 98). Abortion is one of the most divisive and emotional issues facing United States policy makers today. ("Economics of

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.

The case of Roe vs. Wade was an example of an individual’s rights and privacy against long held doctrines based on religious beliefs. In 1973, a woman by the name of Norma L. McCorvey, using an alias of Jane Roe, was single and living in Texas. She got pregnant and wanted an abortion, but it was illegal. The case eventually made its way to the United States Supreme Court. The Court recognized in a 7 to 2 decision that the Constitutional right to privacy should include a person’s choice to terminate their pregnancy. This case became not known as one of a person’s right to privacy, but rather the case that legalized abortion (Roe v. Wade).