The Landmark Ruling: Roe V. Wade's Legal Journey

Roe v. Wade was a landmark decision by the U.S. Supreme Court in 1973 that ruled the U.S. Constitution protected a person's right to have an abortion. The case was brought by Norma McCorvey, under the legal pseudonym Jane Roe, who wanted an abortion but lived in Texas, where abortion was illegal except when necessary to save the mother's life. The Supreme Court ruled that the Due Process Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution provides a fundamental right to privacy, which protects a pregnant woman's right to an abortion. The decision sparked an ongoing abortion debate in the United States and was criticized by some in the legal community as an example of judicial activism. In 2022, the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade in Dobbs v. Jackson Women's Health Organization, ruling that there is no federal constitutional right to abortion.

The US Supreme Court's ruling

The Court's decision was based on the interpretation that the Fourteenth Amendment's concept of personal liberty and restrictions upon state action covered a right to privacy that protected a pregnant woman's decision on whether to abort a pregnancy. The Court also noted that the right to privacy was broad enough to encompass a woman's decision to terminate her pregnancy.

The Court further held that the right to abortion was not absolute and must be balanced against the government's interests in protecting women's health and prenatal life. To that end, the Court created a trimester framework to govern all abortion regulations in the country. During the first trimester, the state could not intervene in a person's decision to have an abortion. In the second trimester, the state could regulate abortion procedures to protect the health of pregnant persons but could not prohibit abortions altogether. After the point of viability, which was set at the end of the second trimester, the state could ban abortion or take steps to protect the fetus, except when necessary to protect the patient's life and health.

The Roe v. Wade ruling was a landmark decision that "legalised abortion" and changed the way states could regulate abortion, characterising it as something covered under constitutional rights to privacy. The ruling was controversial and was criticised by some in the legal community as an example of "judicial activism". Despite the criticism, the Supreme Court reaffirmed the central holding of Roe in its 1992 decision, Planned Parenthood v. Casey, although it abandoned the trimester framework established in Roe.

In June 2022, the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade in Dobbs v. Jackson Women's Health Organization, ruling that there is no federal constitutional right to abortion. This decision abandoned nearly 50 years of precedent and marked the first time the Supreme Court had taken away a fundamental right.

The right to privacy

In Roe v. Wade, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that the Fourteenth Amendment's guarantee of liberty, which protects individual privacy, includes the right to abortion. The Court held that the constitutional right to privacy includes a woman's right to decide whether to have an abortion. This ruling applied the core constitutional principle of privacy and liberty to a woman's ability to terminate a pregnancy.

The Roe v. Wade ruling was based on the interpretation that the Fourteenth Amendment's Due Process Clause protects an individual's right to privacy, including a woman's qualified right to terminate her pregnancy. The Court's decision in Roe v. Wade effectively stopped the enforcement of many state laws that banned abortion before 24 weeks.

The Supreme Court's decision in Roe v. Wade was among the most controversial in U.S. history. Some critics argued that Roe did not go far enough, as it was placed within the framework of civil rights rather than the broader human rights. Despite the criticism, the Supreme Court reaffirmed Roe's central holding in its 1992 decision, Planned Parenthood v. Casey.

The Roe v. Wade ruling had far-reaching implications, making abortion legal, more accessible, and safer for many pregnant people across the country. However, it's important to note that even with Roe, some individuals still faced obstacles to accessing abortion care, particularly those from low-income communities, people of color, young people, and others.

In June 2022, the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade, ruling that there is no federal constitutional right to abortion. This decision in Dobbs v. Jackson Women's Health Organization marked the first time the Supreme Court had taken away a fundamental right, abandoning nearly 50 years of precedent.

The right to liberty

The Roe v. Wade ruling of 1973 recognised the right to liberty in the US Constitution, which protects personal privacy, and includes the right to decide whether to continue a pregnancy.

The ruling held that the specific guarantee of "liberty" in the Fourteenth Amendment, which protects individual privacy, includes the right to abortion prior to fetal viability. The Supreme Court ruled that the decision to continue or end a pregnancy belongs to the individual, not the government.

The Roe v. Wade ruling placed reproductive decision-making alongside other fundamental rights, such as freedom of speech and freedom of religion. The Court required the state to justify any interference with the right to access abortion by showing that it had a "compelling interest", and held that no interest was compelling enough to ban abortion before viability.

The ruling was consistent with earlier Supreme Court rulings recognising a right of privacy that protects intimate and personal decisions, including those affecting child-rearing, marriage, procreation, and the use of contraception.

The Roe v. Wade ruling solidified and expanded the constitutional right to privacy, which has been affirmed and built upon in subsequent cases related to contraception and procreation, marriage, family relations, child-rearing, and intimacy.

The right to abortion

Roe v. Wade

Roe v. Wade was a landmark decision by the U.S. Supreme Court in 1973, which ruled that the U.S. Constitution protected a person's right to have an abortion. The decision struck down many abortion laws and sparked an ongoing abortion debate in the United States. The case was brought by Norma McCorvey, under the legal pseudonym "Jane Roe", who, in 1969, became pregnant with her third child. McCorvey wanted an abortion but lived in Texas, where abortion was illegal except when necessary to save the mother's life.

The Decision

The Supreme Court decided two important things:

• The U.S. Constitution provides a fundamental "right to privacy" that protects a person's right to choose whether to have an abortion.
• The abortion right is not absolute. It must be balanced against the government's interests in protecting health and prenatal life.

The Arguments

Each side of Roe v. Wade used several arguments. Texas defended its abortion restriction with three main arguments:

• States have an interest in safeguarding health, maintaining medical standards, and protecting prenatal life.
• A fetus is a "person" protected by the 14th Amendment.
• Protecting prenatal life from the time of conception is a compelling state interest.

Jane Roe and the others involved based their case on the following arguments:

• The Texas law invaded an individual's right to "liberty" under the 14th Amendment.
• The Texas law infringed on rights to marital, familial, and sexual privacy guaranteed by the Bill of Rights.
• The right to an abortion is absolute—a person is entitled to end a pregnancy at any time, for any reason, in any way they choose.

The Outcome

The Court split the difference between the two arguments presented. First, the Court recognized that abortion does fall under privacy rights. The justices acknowledged that being forced to continue a pregnancy puts a lot at risk, including the woman's health, psychological harm, and the taxing of the mother's physical and mental health.

However, the Court did not agree that the Constitution guarantees an absolute right to an abortion. In other words, the privacy right does not prevent states from putting some regulations on abortion. The Court created a framework to balance the state's interests with privacy rights, defining the rights of each party by dividing pregnancy into three 12-week trimesters:

• During the first trimester, a state cannot regulate abortion beyond requiring that the procedure be performed by a licensed doctor in medically safe conditions.
• During the second trimester, a state may regulate abortion if the regulations are reasonably related to the health of the pregnant person.
• During the third trimester, the state's interest in protecting the potential human life outweighs the right to privacy, and the state may prohibit abortions unless an abortion is necessary to save the life or health of the pregnant person.

The Impact

Many think of Roe v. Wade as the case that "legalized abortion." However, that isn't exactly true. What it did was change the way states can regulate abortion and characterized abortion as something that was covered under constitutional rights of privacy.

Since the Court's decision in Roe v. Wade, judicial interpretation of the constitution is that abortion is legal. However, after Roe, many abortion opponents have advocated for stricter abortion laws, and a number of states have placed restrictions on abortions in certain circumstances.

Overturning Roe v. Wade

On June 24, 2022, the Supreme Court ruled in Dobbs v. Jackson Women's Health Organization, a case involving a challenge to a Mississippi ban on abortion at 15 weeks of pregnancy. The ruling overturned Roe, ending the federal constitutional right to abortion in the United States. As a result, one in three women now live in states where abortion is not accessible, and in the first few months after Roe was overturned, 18 states banned or severely restricted abortion.

The right to life

The Roe v. Wade case was a landmark decision by the U.S. Supreme Court, which ruled that the Constitution of the United States protected a person's right to have an abortion. The decision, made on January 22, 1973, struck down many abortion laws and sparked an ongoing abortion debate in the United States.

The case was brought by Norma McCorvey, under the legal pseudonym "Jane Roe", who in 1969, became pregnant with her third child. McCorvey wanted an abortion but lived in Texas, where abortion was illegal except when necessary to save the mother's life. Her lawyers filed a lawsuit on her behalf against Henry Wade, the district attorney of Dallas County, Texas, where Roe resided.

The Supreme Court ruled that a set of Texas statutes criminalizing abortion in most instances violated a constitutional right to privacy, implicit in the liberty guarantee of the due process clause of the Fourteenth Amendment. The Court held that the right to privacy was broad enough to encompass a woman's decision to terminate her pregnancy.

The Court's ruling in Roe v. Wade was among the most controversial in U.S. history. The decision also shaped the debate concerning which methods the Supreme Court should use in constitutional adjudication.

The Roe v. Wade ruling and its companion case, Doe v. Bolton, established legal abortion as follows:

• In the first three months of pregnancy, no one could interfere with a woman's decision to abort her child.
• After the first three months, but before the viability of the unborn child, an individual state could enact laws to protect the health of the mother but could not prohibit the abortion of the unborn child.
• After the viability of the unborn child, an individual state could, if it chose to do so, enact laws to protect the unborn child, but abortion had to be allowed if the life or health of the mother was at stake.

The Supreme Court defined "health" as:

> "the medical judgment that may be exercised in light of all factors – physical, emotional, psychological, familial, and the woman’s age – relevant to the well-being of the patient. All these factors may relate to health."

Consequently, this broad definition of "health" made abortion legal up to the moment of birth in some states.

The Roe v. Wade ruling was effectively the law of the land for 49 years, until the U.S. Supreme Court issued its overturn decision in 2022.

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