Roe V. Wade Case Study

In the controversial case, Roe v. Wade, a pregnant woman who was given the name Jane Roe to hide her identity attempted to get an abortion but they were illegal in Texas so she sued the state for invasion of privacy. Roe's real name is Norma McCorvey; she was an ex-carnival worker who was raped and became pregnant. In 1969, when she moved back to her home state, she was denied and abortion on grounds that her health was not threatened. She started to look for other options, such as an abortion clinic out of the country, but those were too risky. She had given up searching for a safe, clinical abortion when two lawyers contacted her about her story. These lawyers were Linda Coffee and Sarah Weddington. Weddington had herself been through

“Abortion: Roe v. Wade” American Decades. Ed. Judith S. Baughman, et al. Vol 8: 1970-1979.

The issue before the Supreme Court on the case of Roe v. Wade was on abortion. In august 1969 a single pregnant woman based in Texas wanted to get rid her pregnancy through an abortion. But her doctor denied the request on a reason that it was against the Texas law. Then Jane Roe identified by the media as Norma McCorvey sued her doctor for refusing to abort her baby she sought legal help and filed against henry wade, district attorney for Dallas County, Texas. Jane Roe argued that the law of Texas was unconstitutional. She later on requested an injunction to restrain Henry Wade. Roe’s lawyer claimed Texas abortion law violated her rights under due process clause of the 14th amendment.

A decision announced in 1973 by the United States Supreme Court is still debated today. That decision is known as Roe vs Wade. The Court decided that a pregnant woman can have an abortion (during and up to the first trimester of the pregnancy) without any laws made by the state in which she resides. The woman, Norma McCovey became pregnant while living in Texas. Ms. McCovey had other children she was raising as a single mother. She could not legally have an abortion in Texas and got a lawyer to sure the state under the name of Jane Roe. This landmark case, Roe vs Wade, became the law of the land two years after her case was filed. The child she carried was put up for adoption. The Court, in a length ruling, said, in affect that the law concerning abortion was unconstitutional and void.

Abortion is a very touchy subject and plays a huge part of American politics. Thanks to the Supreme Court Case Roe V. Wade of 1973, abortion was decriminalized. Before Roe V. Wade, women were criminalized for receiving an abortion which caused many of illegal abortions to take place. This case allowed women to be able to receive an abortion under the 14th Amendment. Since abortion is now protected under the constitution, several states have found numerous way to still indirectly criminalize abortion.

The landmark decision Roe v Wade was issued in 1973, after three years of different challenges and differences of opinions. These decision affirms the legality of a woman’s right to have an abortion under the Fourteenth amendment of the United States. In the mean time this case continues to be a debate among government and society. The U.S Supreme Court states that a woman right to abortion is within the right of privacy and is protected by the fourteenth Amendment. Roe v Wade illustrates not only human rights, but also how a case gets its way to a different level and is decided by the Supreme

Many states had conflicting criminal laws due to the debate on whether life begins at conception or at some other point in utero. These debates were based on religious belief systems, state laws, and common law practices. There was no definitive line to be drawn upon when the fetus should be considered a person with rights. Then, in 1973, the Supreme Court of the United States ruled in the decision Roe v. Wade that abortions in all states were generally legal and allowed pregnant mothers to receive abortions.

For American politics, Roe v. Wade is seen as a turning point of sorts. The first big battle “won” in favor of reproductive rights being left in the hands of those with uteruses and not the government, or doctor’s designation. Before Roe v. Wade, abortions were considered to be illegal in America. However, that doesn’t mean they weren’t being conducted. In fact, the states had their own individual rulings on abortion. Nonetheless, unfortunately, this victory didn’t last very long before things began to revert back to how they were before. After Roe v. Wade, the states found loopholes to the rulings to still prevent people from legally obtaining an abortion. Loopholes were discovered, new laws were created and the fight was back on again Not much has changed on the current abortion policies, each state is allowed to make their own law and policy regarding abortions and in some states, they’re banned once again. However, before we talk about the present laws regarding reproductive rights, let’s look at early American history, the 1900s, and finally the present.

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).

It was the Supreme Court decision to overrule not only Texas’s law but all laws that prohibited the abortion of a fetus after the first trimester of a pregnancy. In a 7-2 decision they declared it was in violation of the person’s right to privacy and the Fourteenth Amendment, among others.

Never in the history of the United States, with the exception of the Slave Trade, has a public policy carved such an unmistakable social divide. Never before has a public policy spurned so many questions about social and political standards of American culture. To understand the abortion controversy and ultimately the Supreme Court’s involvement and decision in Roe v. Wade, the roots of abortion must be examined.

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.

     Abortion is the ending of a pregnancy before birth. An abortion results in the death of the embryo or fetus and may be either spontaneous or induced. For years, abortion has been an extremely controversial subject. The history of abortion reaches back not just decades, but centuries, and even milleniums. Today, policies regarding legal abortion in the U.S. is being debated everywhere. Many myths and misconceptions confuse this issue. A better understanding of the history of abortion in America can help provide a context for an improved policy in the future.

It was on the year of 1973 were Roe vs. Wade, a decision made by the Supreme Court of the United States were women history change. It authorized women to perform an abortion legally in the early stages of pregnancy. “The landmark Supreme Court ruling on abortion was a complete overhaul of abortion laws in effect in a number of states, which allowed abortion only to save the life of the mother. A few of the states had previously granted permission for an abortion if the pregnancy was a result of rape or incest, but elective abortion was not permitted.” (Druker). Some people argue that the law were abusing power and did not let women to do as pleased with their bodies. “For more than thirty years the courts have ruled that mentally competent pregnant women can be forced to undergo medical treatments believed necessary to preserved fetal health and life.” (Schroedel) Even though abortion was legalized to prevent unsanitary conditions and death in women, illegal abortion still occurs, like teenagers to perform an abortion without the consent of the parents. “Although teenagers may trust their parents, they had negative attitudes toward parental permission laws on abortion. No matter how strongly the participants opposed abortion and even if they discussed their parents sympathetically, the teenagers did not feel that mandatory parental involvement would be helpful.”(Stone and Waszak). The majority of teenagers performed illegal abortions and only “43% of these minors