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Supreme Court and Women's Rights Essay

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In the second part of the twentieth century, women’s rights once again gained a lot of momentum. The women’s liberation movement was born out of women civil right activists who were tired of waiting for legislative change for women’s rights. Even though women are being recognized more in society, they still face difficult issues. Sexism –especially in the workforce –is becoming a major issue, birth control pills are still not popular, and abortions are frowned upon in society. The case Roe v. Wade is about a woman with the fake name of Jane Roe who wanted an abortion but the state of Texas would not let her unless her life was in danger. She sued the district attorney of Dallas County saying that it violated the right to privacy under the …show more content…

In a 7-2 opinion, the Court decided that “a pregnant woman can have an abortion for the first three months without the state interfering, the state can regulate abortion but can’t prohibit it, and the state can regulate or forbid all abortions except to save the life of the mother” (“Landmark Cases of the U.S. Supreme Court”, n.d.).
Jane Roe is fighting a society who is mainly against the idea of having an abortion. While her being unmarried glimmers hope in the case for a reason to have an abortion, she needs more arguments than that. One of the arguments that she used to support her case was that the Texas abortion law that says “a woman cannot have an abortion unless her life is threatened” (“Landmark Cases of the U.S. Supreme Court”, n.d.) is very vague. She also says that the right of privacy is mentioned in the 1st, 4th, 5th, 9th, and 14th Amendments. Another argument is that because the Constitution doesn’t say fetus, they virtually have no rights. Overall, Jane Roe is just not in the position to be able to support a child on her own, so she wants the right to be able to handle her situation without the government interrupting.
Even though the government appears like bullies, their laws do have justification. One argument that that the Texas government used to support their case was that the U.S. Constitution does not explicitly mention any rights of privacy. They believe in strict interpretation rather than loose interpretation of all

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