The Roe v. Wade case

Roe v. Wade, 410 U.S. 113, 93 S. Ct. 705, 35 L. Ed. 2d 147 (1973).

In 1973, Roe, a single pregnant woman, filed a law suit challenging the constitutional credibility of the Texas abortion laws. According to this laws, procuring an abortion, unless if its purpose was to save the life of the mother, was a crime. Hallford was another plaintiff in the lawsuit. He was a doctor facing criminal charges for violating the laws. Additionally, a married couple by the name Does were challenging the case claiming that it was unconstitutional. Wade, the District attorney, was the defendant in the case.

Abortion has been in existence for a very long time now, and its impact on the society has been huge. In fact, it is estimated that abortion has been in existence for five hundred years now (Faux 1988). Both those in support and those not in support of abortion have held facts that validate their arguments. For instance, pro-life proponents have argued that abortion is murder. On the hand, pro-choice supporters argue that a fetus has not yet achieved “human hood” for it cannot survive independent of the mother. Pro-life proponents state that instead of a woman choosing to abort, she can give birth and give up the baby for adoption, but again, a woman who gives birth might not have the emotional comfort to give up her baby. Some people argued that forcing a woman to continue with an unwanted pregnancy is going against her civil rights, this might be a fertilizer on which other difficult situations that will erode her dignity might germinate. Until today, this remains one of the most debated cases in the court. In fact, no other law suit exist in which the court was faced with disputes surrounding ethics, politics and religion simultaneously. The political divide accused the court of legalizing murder based on very flimsy and weak justifications. On the other hand, supporters of the court argued that the decision made was a legitimate and principled way of protecting personal privacy and liberty.

As the two sides, the pro-choice and pro-life, held strong arguments, the big legal question still remained: did the constitution embrace the right of a woman to procure an abortion?

On January 22, 1973, a landmark decision was landed down by the US Supreme Court on the Roe v. Wade case. The court affirmed that constitutional provision of a right to privacy is inclusive of a woman’s right to make a choice of whatever medical procedures she wishes to undertake. The ruling recognized that these personal choice are inclusive of the right to procure an abortion.

1. Three justifications have been used in history to ban abortion: A Victorian social code to discourage sexual misconduct, protecting a woman’s life, protecting the life of a fetus.
2. Given modern technology and gender roles, the first two justifications were declared irrelevant.
3. On the third justification, the court decided no consensus exists on regarding fetuses as “people”, hence this justification cannot be used to criminalize almost all abortions. 
4. Criminalizing abortion except when it is procured to save the life of the mother goes against the Due Process Clause in the Fourteenth Amendment hence unconstitutional. 
5. The Due Process Clause has a provision on the right to privacy which include the right for a woman to end her pregnancy.
6. A state has no right to deny a woman a right to terminate her pregnancy only in cases where the interests to protect the potentiality of life and the health of the pregnant woman are very legitimate.

Works Cited

Faux, Marian. Roe V. Wade: The Untold Story of the Landmark Supreme Court Decision That Made Abortion Legal. New York: Macmillan, 1988. Print.