The Landmark Roe V. Wade Ruling: A Historical Perspective

Roe v. Wade was a landmark decision by the U.S. Supreme Court in 1973 that ruled the Constitution of the United States protected a person's right to have an abortion. The decision, which was reached on January 22, 1973, held that the right to liberty in the Constitution, which protects personal privacy, includes the right to decide whether to continue a pregnancy. The Supreme Court recognised that the decision to continue or end a pregnancy belongs to the individual, not the government.

Roe v. Wade recognised the right to abortion as a liberty right

Roe v. Wade, a landmark ruling by the U.S. Supreme Court in 1973, recognised the right to abortion as a liberty right. The ruling held that the decision to continue or end a pregnancy belongs to the individual, not the government.

The Supreme Court's ruling in Roe v. Wade was based on the guarantee of "liberty" in the Fourteenth Amendment of the U.S. Constitution, which protects individual privacy. The Court determined that this right to privacy includes the right to abortion before fetal viability. This placed reproductive decision-making alongside other fundamental rights, such as freedom of speech and religion, by conferring the highest degree of constitutional protection, known as "strict scrutiny".

The Roe v. Wade ruling had far-reaching implications, making abortion legal, more accessible, and safer for many pregnant people across the country. It was consistent with earlier Supreme Court rulings that recognised a right to privacy in intimate and personal decisions, including those affecting child-rearing, marriage, procreation, and the use of contraception.

The ruling held that the state must justify any interference with the right to access abortion and that no interest was compelling enough to ban abortion before viability. After fetal viability, the state could ban abortion or take steps to protect the fetus, but abortion must still be permitted to protect a patient's life and health.

The Roe v. Wade decision was controversial and faced opposition from some in the legal community, who criticised it as a form of judicial activism. Despite this, the Supreme Court repeatedly reaffirmed the ruling until it was overturned in 2022, nearly 50 years later.

The decision was based on the Fourteenth Amendment

The Roe v. Wade ruling of 1973 was based on the Fourteenth Amendment of the U.S. Constitution, which states that no state shall "deprive any person of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law". The Supreme Court's decision recognised that the right to liberty in the Constitution, which protects personal privacy, includes the right to decide whether to continue a pregnancy.

The Court's ruling was based on the interpretation that the Fourteenth Amendment's guarantee of "liberty" protects individual privacy, and that this includes the right to abortion prior to fetal viability. This was a landmark decision, as it placed reproductive decision-making alongside other fundamental rights, such as freedom of speech and religion, by conferring it the highest degree of constitutional protection, known as "strict scrutiny".

The Roe v. Wade ruling held that the decision to continue or end a pregnancy belongs to the individual, not the government. The Court required the state to justify any interference with the right to access abortion by showing that it had a "compelling interest", and that no interest was compelling enough to ban abortion before viability.

The decision also recognised that the right to privacy is a fundamental right, and that only a compelling state interest could justify its limitation. The Court identified the state's interest in protecting maternal health and preserving fetal life as sufficiently compelling to permit the regulation or prohibition of abortion at certain stages of pregnancy.

The Roe v. Wade ruling had a significant impact on abortion laws in the United States, making abortion legal, more accessible, and safer for many pregnant people. It also sparked an ongoing debate about the legality and extent of abortion, as well as the role of moral and religious views in political decision-making.

The ruling was made by the US Supreme Court

The landmark ruling in Roe v. Wade was made by the US Supreme Court in 1973. The case was brought by Norma McCorvey, under the legal pseudonym "Jane Roe", who in 1969 became pregnant with her third child and wanted an abortion but lived in Texas, where abortion was illegal except to save the mother's life. Her lawyers filed a lawsuit on her behalf in a US federal court against her local district attorney, Henry Wade, alleging that Texas's abortion laws were unconstitutional.

The Supreme Court decided two important things:

• The United States 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 Court recognised that abortion falls under privacy rights. The constitutional right to privacy comes from the Due Process Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment. The Court decided that this right to privacy extends to control over pregnancy. The justices acknowledged that being forced to continue a pregnancy puts a lot at risk, including the mother's health and economic situation.

The Court also discussed the different views on when life begins. Many in the Jewish faith, for example, believe that life begins at birth, while the prevailing view in the Catholic faith is that life begins at conception. The Court found that it is not up to the states to decide when life begins.

The Roe v. Wade decision included a framework to balance the state's interests with privacy rights. The Court defined 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 Roe v. Wade ruling was controversial and remains a hotly debated topic. Many opponents of the decision argue that because the text of the Constitution doesn't explicitly mention abortion, it should be left up to the states to regulate. Others say that a person should be protected by the Constitution at conception, and that abortion violates the Constitutional rights of the unborn child.

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

The case was brought by Norma McCorvey, under the pseudonym 'Jane Roe'

In 1969, Norma McCorvey, under the pseudonym Jane Roe, became pregnant with her third child. She wanted an abortion but lived in Texas, where abortion was illegal unless it was necessary to save the mother's life. Her lawyers, Sarah Weddington and Linda Coffee, filed a lawsuit on her behalf in a US federal court against her local district attorney, Henry Wade, alleging that Texas's abortion laws were unconstitutional.

The case, Roe v. Wade, was a landmark decision of the US Supreme Court in which the Court ruled that the Constitution of the United States protected a right to have an abortion. The decision struck down many abortion laws and sparked an ongoing abortion debate in the United States about whether, or to what extent, abortion should be legal, who should decide the legality of abortion, and what the role of moral and religious views in the political sphere should be.

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 to save the mother's life. Her lawyers, Sarah Weddington and Linda Coffee, filed a lawsuit on her behalf in a US federal court. The defendant was Dallas County District Attorney, Henry Wade, who represented the State of Texas.

The case began in 1970 when "Jane Roe"—a fictional name used to protect the identity of the plaintiff, Norma McCorvey—instituted federal action against Henry Wade, the district attorney of Dallas County, Texas, where Roe resided. The Supreme Court disagreed with Roe’s assertion of an absolute right to terminate pregnancy in any way and at any time. Instead, it attempted to balance what it regarded as a “fundamental” right to privacy with the state’s “compelling” interests in protecting the health of pregnant persons and the “potentiality of human life.

In 1973, the US Supreme Court’s ruling in Roe v. Wade recognized that the decision to continue or end a pregnancy belongs to the individual, not the government. Roe held that the specific guarantee of “liberty” in the Fourteenth Amendment of the US Constitution, which protects individual privacy, includes the right to abortion prior to fetal viability.

The ruling was overturned in 2022

The landmark Roe v. Wade ruling, which recognised the right to abortion, was overturned in 2022, almost 50 years after it was first passed. The ruling was overturned by the US Supreme Court in a 6-3 decision in Dobbs v. Jackson Women's Health Organization. The Supreme Court ruled that there is no federal constitutional right to abortion.

The overturning of Roe v. Wade has meant that individual states can now restrict or ban abortions. Since the ruling, more than a dozen states have banned abortion outright, forcing people to travel long distances to access abortion care or to carry pregnancies against their will.

The Supreme Court's decision in Dobbs v. Jackson Women's Health Organization was based on the grounds that the substantive right to abortion was not "deeply rooted in this Nation's history or tradition", nor considered a right when the Due Process Clause was ratified in 1868. The decision also stated that abortion was unknown in US law until Roe v. Wade.

The ruling in Dobbs v. Jackson Women's Health Organization has been described as a "devastating decision that will reverberate for generations" and as the first time in history that the Supreme Court has taken away a fundamental right.

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