Roe Vs Wade Case Study

On February 2nd, 1970 the Supreme Court was presented with the case Roe vs Wade. The case Roe vs Wade involves a woman named Norma McCorvey who is known as Jane Roe in court documents and a man named Henry Wade. Jane Roe had her first child in 1965. The child, Melissa was taken care of by Jane’s mother. Jane would leave the child with her mother while she went out with friends. One day Jane was woken up by her mother and was told to sign insurance papers when in reality those papers were adoption papers. The second child that Jane gave birth to was given up for adoption to her mother. In 1961 Jane got pregnant for a third time and ended up moving back to Dallas, Texas. She did not wish to keep the child, but could not have an abortion just because she did not want the child. There was a law in Texas that abortion was illegal. Roe was advised by friends to falsely accuse of being raped. Although, she did claim of being raped there wasn’t enough evidence and

During the sexual revolution and feminist movements in the 1960’s many women were challenging state laws that made abortion illegal. In 1970 a lawsuit was filed on behalf of an anonymous pregnant Texas woman, Jane Roe, against the Dallas District Attorney Henry Wade. The law suit argued that the Texas abortion laws were unconstitutional. The lawsuit was filed by Linda Coffee and Sarah Weddington; both of whom had recently graduated from the University of Texas Law. The plaintiff was Jane Roe; a Dallas resident whose real name was Norma L. Mccorvey. She was a single woman who was pregnant. She claimed that the law that made abortion a criminal offense violated her constitutional rights. She was unable to afford to travel

Norma McCorvey was a young woman who had dropped out of high school, divorced from her husband, and was raising her five year old daughter with very little money. She tried to obtain an abortion but was unable to under Texas law in 1969. At the time, Texas did not allow women to have abortions unless the mother’s life was in danger. McCorvey had no choice but to carry the baby full term and give up the baby she wanted to abort. Her lawyer also introduced her to two recent graduates of the University of Texas Law School, Sarah Weddington and Linda Coffee. The three women decided to challenge the constitutionality of Texas’s law and McCorvey became “Jane Roe” in a test case against Henry Wade, the criminal district attorney for Dallas County, Texas. Wade appealed to the Supreme Court the decision of a three-judge federal district court striking down Texas’s law. Justice Blackmun finally handed down the Court’s opinion on January 23, 1973. The Court’s decision was seven to two, and the majority’s opinion was announced by Justice Blackmun. Chief Justice Burger and Justices Douglas and Stewart concurred; Justices Rehnquist and White dissented.

In Roe v. Wade, Norma Mccorvey “Jane Roe” started federal action against the Dallas county, Texas district attorney, Henry Wade. Originally, Roe wanted a woman to be able to terminate any pregnancy at any time. The Supreme Court disagreed with Roe’s opinion, ending in a ruling where an abortion could happen before the end of the first trimester. This ruling also included ways to balance state interests with a woman’s right of privacy. In the final SCOTUS opinion, the majority states, “Statutes criminalizing abortion in most instances violated a woman’s constitutional right of privacy”(Roe v. Wade).The decision made by the Supreme Court explained that the many Texas statues making abortion criminal violated both the due process clause of the 14th amendment and a woman’s right of privacy. The lasting impact made by Roe v. Wade has increased the freedoms of women as well as set precedents for many cases regarding abortion and privacy.

Few Supreme Court decisions have stirred up as much controversy, vitriolic debate, and even violence as the one delivered in Roe v. Wade in 1973. Four decades later, it remains a touchstone for the culture wars in the United States and a pivot upon which much of American politics turns. In fact, the authors of “Roe v. Wade: The Abortion Rights Controversy in American History” state that even today, the case (and its companion cases) “remains the most divisive and controversial judicial decision of the twentieth century” (3). Although it is a landmark case in itself, its continuing influence on American law and politics proves that its legacy lives on far beyond its formal resolution in a court of law. Essentially, the most important points are that the cause of the case’s complexity and drama is the legal relationship between men and women that the ruling mirrored and compounded, the way the medical profession was impacted, and the political significance that the issue still holds presently.

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

"The Court today is correct in holding that the right asserted by Jane Roe is embraced within the personal liberty protected by the Due Process Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment. It is evident that the Texas abortion statute infringes that right directly. Indeed, it is difficult to imagine a more complete abridgment of a constitutional freedom than that worked by the inflexible criminal statute now in force in Texas. The question then becomes whether the state interests advanced to justify this abridgment can survive the 'particularly careful scrutiny' that the Fourteenth Amendment here requires. The asserted state interests are protection of the health and safety of the pregnant woman, and protection of the potential

In the court case Roe v. Wade, Jane Roe (false name to protect her real identity) wanted an abortion. However, in some states like in Texas (where this all took places) abortion was illegal unless it was to save the woman’s life. In 1970, Roe and her team of lawyers were fighting to protect her and all of the women in the world to have a say in what’s right and wrong if them. Roe’s team of lawyers were suing Henry Wade, the district attorney of dallas county, Texas. Her team of lawyers and er wanted to obtain an injunction, which would stop Wade from enforcing the law against abortion. The Federal court ruled in favor of Roe, stating that the Texas law against abortion was unconstitutional. Wade appealed the case to the U.S. Supreme Court. The Supreme Court ruled in favor of Roe 7-2. They stated that “with Roe’s assertion that woman had the absolute right to end pregnancy in anyway and at any time...woman’s right to privacy had to be balanced with a state’s interest in regulating abortion”(Encyclopaedia Britannica). This statement means that it the choice of whether to have an abortion or not is up to the woman, but the state has a right to protect the fetus.

In 1973, the United Stated Supreme Court made a critical decision on abortion laws. This decision was made because of Roe, a pregnant woman. She brought a class action suit challenging the constitutionality of the Texas abortion laws. These laws made it a crime to obtain or even attempt an abortion. The defendant was county District Attorney Wade. Roe won her lawsuits at trial. A three-judge District Court panel tried the cases together and “held that Roe had standing to sue and presented justiciable controversies, and that declaratory relief was warranted.” The district court also held that the Texas abortion statutes were void as vague and for over broadly infringing the Ninth and Fourteenth Amendment rights of the plaintiffs.

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.

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).

These illegal abortions were unsafe, and could be fatal to most women, and put their lives at risk. Jane Roe was a twenty-one year old woman that was pregnant, who represented all of the women who wanted abortions but could not get one. Henry Wade was a Texas attorney General who had defended the state’s law. The Supreme Court ruled for Roe and stated that America’s right to privacy included: the right for a woman to choose whether or not to have her child; and the right for a woman and her doctor to make this decision without state involvement within the first trimester of the pregnancy. It made it possible for woman to get safe, legal abortions from well-trained medical practitioners. Consequently, there was a dramatic decrease in pregnancy related deaths.

In the arena of family planning abortion policies became another target for women's rights movements. Most states banned or restricted abortions to being only applicable if the mother’s health was at risk .In 1970 Linda Coffee and Sarah Weddington took a case on for Norma L. McCorvey ,”Jane Roe”, against a Texas law that legalized most abortions. They stated the Texas law banning all abortions except those necessary to save the life of the mother violated Roe's constitutional rights. Roe claimed her life was not endangered but she wanted to terminate her pregnancy and could not afford to travel out of state to do so.The lawsuit was filed against Henry Wade a Dallas County District Attorney.The case (Roe vs. Wade) in 1973 was eventually

In this case they looked at the legality of abortion, and made it legal but there was tension in Texas as there was a law that prohibited abortion unless to save a woman’s life. This law was enforced by the district attorney Henry Wade. Jane Roe is Norma Mccorvey who wanted an abortion but was not able to due to the Texan law, and Wade who was enforcing this. The case I believe shows how people tried to take control of women, their bodies, and their free will as they weren’t being allowed to decide for themselves when this has nothing to do with anyone except for woman who’s body is being affected. I see why the government is needed to regulate this new process but at the same time deciding for women isn’t right. There are in fact some arguments which do seem logical for example, the dangers which abortion may have on any women’s

During 1970, the state of Texas banned all abortions with the exception of those that involved the health, life and well-being of a mother so when a pregnant Dallas resident (Jane Roe) attempted to abort her baby, she was denied even though she had the right to end her pregnancy in a safe and secure environment. Since Roe couldn’t