Roe versus Wade

The Roe vs Wade case was and still is one of the most historical cases that hit the United States Court system. This controversial case is still talked about to this very day. The topic of abortion overall is a red button topic that when brought up often end in yelling. The case was “ Roe vs Wade, which recognised that the constitutional right to privacy extends to a woman’s right to make her own personal medical decisions -including the decision to have an abortion without interference from politicians” (PlannedParenthood.org ). This meant that women can now have access to safe, legal abortions without fear of government intrusion.This case was a huge step for women's rights and is a very necessary right to have. Every woman deserves access to safe, legal abortions.

At the time Roe was decided, most states severely restricted or banned the practice of abortion. However, these restrictions were challenged amid the sexual revolution and feminist movements of the 1960s. In 1970, two recent graduates of the University of Texas Law School, Linda Coffee and Sarah Weddington, brought a lawsuit on behalf of a pregnant woman, Dallas area resident Norma L. McCorvey ("Jane Roe"), claiming a Texas law criminalizing most abortions violated Roe's constitutional rights. The Texas law banned all abortions except those necessary to save the life of the mother. Roe claimed that while her life was not

Abortion, the “early ending of a pregnancy” (“Abortion - Topic Overview” 1), was and remains a controversial topic all across the world. Most states, such as Texas, had made abortions illegal. However, Norma L. McCorvey was a Texas resident with an unwanted pregnancy. “At the time, Texas law only allowed for abortion in cases of rape, incest, or to save the life of the mother” (“On This Day” 1). With this, McCorvey was forced to give birth to a child she truthfully did not want; she could not afford to travel to a state where abortion was legal. Therefore, McCorvey, using the alias Jane Roe, sued a man named Henry Wade, a Dallas County State Attorney, who enforced the law of abortion.

The Roe v. Wade law disallowed abortion by fabricated means aside from when the mother's life was in jeopardy. The act was translated as a “nearly complete ban on abortion.” (Hoffer, Peter. Roe v. Wade: The Abortion Rights Controversy in American History, 2nd Edition (Landmark Law Cases and American Society. Kansas: University Press of Kansas. 2010. Print.) Roe believed that a woman had the right to end her pregnancy, while wade believed that our State had a responsibility to defend that unborn child . Disputed from the point it was discharged, Roe v. Wade politically separated the country tremendously, and keeps on to inspire intense discussions, legislative issues, and even brutality today.

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).

As I slowly marched the 2.5 mile walk from the Lincoln Memorial to the Supreme Court in Washington DC, I was astonished to see the mass amount of people marching in unison with me. Chants such as, “Hey Hey! Ho Ho! Roe v. Wade has got to go!” rang through the air, and signs saying, “I am the Pro-Life Generation” were hoisted up into the sky, proudly presented to the crowd. A sense of unity lingered over the multitude of people. Traveling from states such as Hawaii, Alabama, and New York, people met at the nation’s capital, standing together for the fight for a human life. This was the March for Life. The United States is in a constant battle against the Catholic Church and its teachings about human life. Additionally, some Catholics disagree with the Church’s stance on this particular issue. The main cause of this debate revolves around when a human life begins.

The research that I chose to elaborate my topic on is the Roe v. Wade court case which is about abortion. The case history is about a woman who was single and pregnant; she decided to bring a stimulating challenge suit to the constitution of Texas laws. The laws that Texas made were given to prohibit mothers from aborting children because it was a crime. They could not do it without medical advice for the reason that it was to save the life of the unborn child. As I begin to go into detail about the court case. First Dr. Hallford, a medical doctor who faced criminal prosecution for violating the state abortion law. Second, you have the Does. They are a married couple with no children who were against Jane Roe and her decisions. Lastly, you have District Attorney Wade. Roe and Hallford had a portion of controversies and declaratory that was warranted. The court ruled a decision relief that was not warranted and the Does criticism was not justiciable. This is a brief synopsis of what the court case will expand on later on in the research paper. I will be utilizing reviews to test what male and female dispositions were towards fetus removal and how they feel about it. The study will extremely differ and I will be getting a broad gender preference perspective of the subject that I decided to do the review on. It will all tie once again into the Roe v. Wade court case. As you are perusing my examination paper; the researcher made an investigation on Chowan University

The facts of the supreme court in a 7-2 decision declared that it was the legal right to an abortion under the fourteenth amendment the case filed by McCorvey against her doctor. The district attorney of Dallas County from 1951-1987 he enforced a Texas law which prohibited abortion. Even though Roe v. Wade was the defining abortion case in the United States, McCorvey never actually had the abortion. The case took three years to reach the Supreme Court, during which time McCorvey gave birth to her baby and put her up for adoption. Norma McCorvey eventually became a Christian, left her job at an abortion clinic, and would go on to become a powerful pro-life voice. McCorvey had the following to say about a moment of conversion

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.

Even to this day, women have not reached maximum equality, but the landmark Supreme Court case Roe v. Wade has helped the women’s equality movement drastically take a step in the right direction. Prior to the case, women had their rights very limited and restricted. Everyone was and still is entitled to their basic rights, however pregnant women were not. Their first, fourth, fifth, ninth, and fourteenth amendment rights were violated and were not addressed until Jane Roe testified in court. The decision made by the court still has a lasting impact even to this day. The landmark Supreme Court case Roe v. Wade was not just a win for Jane Roe, but a win for all women as it helped break the barrier that surrounded women’s equality.

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.

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.

Before 1973, abortion access was determined by state legislature for each individual state with no consistency across the United States. Some states allowed abortions but most state statues heavily restricted or completely banned abortion. The restricted states would generally only allow abortion in the event of rape, incest, fetal anomalies, or the woman’s life is at risk. The state of Texas enforced a state statute that made it illegal for an abortion to be performed unless the woman’s

Roe vs. Wade changed the law for abortions, and made women feel more secure if they can’t handle a child. The idea for future laws is to ensure that women maintain power over their bodies, but do not dominate over the law and use exceptions for abortion. The problem is that pro-choice women and pro-life women have many clashing ideas that make it hard to organize one final law. Pro-choice women believe that abortions should be allowed to a certain extent. SOme even believe it can be a form of birth control, and that there should be no limit of uses. Pro-life women do not agree with the idea of abortion, and think it is crossing the line of the law, since it involves a fetus. The facts from articles in use show the contrasting sides of each

Texas continues to fight women’s rights groups for the life of the “unborn child” and has won on many levels. According to the Texas Abortion Laws, Texas includes mandatory ultrasound imaging and parental consent for minors, and women must make at least four visits to a doctor and receive an ultrasound. Women may only receive a third trimester abortion if it is necessary to prevent death or substantial risk of serious impairment to a women’s physical or mental health, or if fetus has severe and irreversible abnormality. Texas considers an illegal abortion if it destroys the vitality or life of child in birth or before (which otherwise would have been born alive); operating a facility without a license, failure to meet Board of Health standards, or failure to make reports to Department of Health; act preformed after pregnancy with intent to cause termination of pregnancy other than for purpose of birth of live fetus or removal