Roe v. Wade
410 U.S. 113 (1973)
Opinion Summary
Held that a woman's right to choose an abortion is protected by the constitutional right to privacy under the Due Process Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment. Established a trimester framework governing state regulation of abortion. One of the most controversial decisions in Court history, it was overruled by Dobbs v. Jackson Women's Health Organization in 2022.
About this case
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
1973 US Supreme Court decision on abortion, overruled 2022
For other uses, see Roe v. Wade (disambiguation) .
1973 United States Supreme Court case
Roe v. Wade, 410 U.S. 113 (1973),[1] was a landmark decision of the U.S. Supreme Court in which the Court ruled that the Constitution of the United States protected the right of pregnant women to choose to have an abortion before the point of fetal viability . The decision struck down many state abortion laws , and it 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.[2] [3] The decision also shaped debate concerning which methods the Supreme Court should use in constitutional adjudication . Amid years of sustained opposition from the anti-abortion movement and many legal conservatives , the Supreme Court overruled Roe in 2022 in _Dobbs v. Jackson Women's Health Organization _.[4]
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 legal only when necessary to save the mother's life. Her lawyers, Sarah Weddington and Linda Coffee , filed a lawsuit on her behalf in U.S. federal court against her local district attorney , Henry Wade , alleging that Texas's abortion laws were unconstitutional. A special three-judge court of the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Texas ruled in her favor.[5] The parties appealed this ruling to the Supreme Court. In January 1973, the Supreme Court issued a 7–2 decision in McCorvey's favor holding 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. However, it also held that the right to abortion is not absolute and must be balanced against the government's interest in protecting both women's health and prenatal life.[6] [7] It resolved these competing interests by announcing a pregnancy trimester timetable to govern all abortion regulations in the United States. The Court also classified the right to abortion as "fundamental", which required courts to evaluate challenged abortion laws under the "strict scrutiny " standard, the most stringent level of judicial review in the United States.[8]
The Supreme Court's decision in Roe was among the most controversial in U.S. history.[9] [10] Roe was criticized by many in the legal community,[10] [11] [12] including some who thought that Roe reached the correct result but went about it the wrong way,[13] [14] [15] and some called the decision a form of judicial activism .[16] Others argued that Roe did not go far enough, as it was placed within the framework of civil rights rather than human rights .[17]
The decision radically reconfigured the voting coalitions of the Republican and Democratic parties in the following decades. Anti-abortion politicians and activists sought for decades to restrict abortion or overrule the decision;[18] polls into the 21st century showed that a plurality and a majority, especially into the late 2010s to early 2020s, opposed overruling Roe.[19] Despite criticism of the decision, the Supreme Court reaffirmed Roe's central holding in _Planned Parenthood v. Casey _ (1992), although it overruled Roe's trimester framework and abandoned its "strict scrutiny" standard in favor of an "undue burden " test.[6] [20]
Background
History of abortion laws in the United States
State abortion laws at the time of Roe v. Wade were predominately loosest in the Southern United States . Since, demographic support for legality has radically shifted.[21] [22] [23]
Fully illegal (1 state).
Legal in cases of risk to woman's life (29 states).
Legal in cases of rape (1 state).
Legal in cases of risk to woman's health (2 states).
Legal in cases of risk to woman's health, rape or incest, or likely damaged fetus (13 states).
Legal at doctor's discretion (5 states).
Abortion was a fairly common practice in the history of the United States, and was not always a public controversy.[24] [25] [26] [27] At a time when society was more concerned with the serious consequences of women becoming pregnant out of wedlock, family affairs were handled out of public view.[24] [28] The criminality of abortion at common law is a matter of debate by historians and legal scholars.[29] [30] [31]
In 1821, Connecticut passed the first state statute legislating abortion in the United States ;[32] it forbade the use of poisons in abortion.[25] After the 1840s, there was an upsurge in abortions. In the 19th century, the medical profession was generally opposed to abortion, which Mohr argues arose due to competition between men with medical degrees and women without one. The practice of abortion was one of the first medical specialties, and was practiced by unlicensed people; well-off people had abortions and paid well. The press played a key role in rallying support for anti-abortion laws.[25] According to James S. Witherspoon, a former briefing attorney for the Court of Appeals for the Third Supreme Judicial District of Texas, abortion was not legal before [quickening](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quickening "Qu
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Editorial context from Wikipedia (CC-BY-SA 4.0).
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Citation Network
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Case Information
- Court
- Supreme Court of the United States
- Court Level
- Supreme Court of the United States
- Date Decided
- Monday, January 22, 1973
- Citation
- 410 U.S. 113 (1973)
- Jurisdiction
- United States Federal
Legal Topics
This is legal information, not legal advice. Laws vary by jurisdiction and change frequently. Always verify current law with official sources and consult a licensed attorney in your jurisdiction for advice on your specific situation.