Case Citation: Roe v. Wade, 410 U.S. 113, 93 S. Ct. 705, 35 L. Ed. 2d 147, 1973 U.S. LEXIS 159 (U.S. Jan. 22, 1973)
Parties: Jane Roe and Henry Wade Appellant/Defendant
Facts: The Texas Statutes made procuring or attempting abortion a crime unless when medically advised in order to save the life of the mother. The Appellant declared that she was spouseless and pregnant, and that she was unable to attain a legal abortion by an authorized medical practitioner since her life was not threatened by the continuance of her pregnancy and that she could not afford to travel to another jurisdiction in order to acquire a lawful abortion (Ziegler, 2018). Jane Roe sued on behalf of her and other women faced by a similar situation, claiming that the statutes were an unconstitutional invasion of personal privacy, which is protected by the First, Fourth, Fifth, Ninth, and Fourteenth Amendments.
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Procedural History: In 1970, appellant used a fictitious name, Jane Roe, to protect the plaintiff’s identity. Jane Roe sought a declarative judgment that the set of Texas statutes were unlawful and a directive that prevented defendant Henry Wade, District Attorney of Dallas, from enacting the statutes. The Supreme Court disagreed with Roe’s claim of an independent right to terminate her pregnancy and an attempt to seek justice for a woman’s right to personal privacy (Forsythe, 2013).
Issues: Do the set of Texas statues wrongfully invade the Appellant’s right to terminate her pregnancy manifested in the concept of personal freedom contained in the Fourteenth Amendment’s law, in the individual marital and sexual privacy protected by the U.S. Constitution, or among the rights reserved to the citizens by the Ninth Amendment?
Holdings: The right to personal privacy includes the abortion decision. However, the right to terminate pregnancy is not eligible and must be examined against important state interests in law. The abortion laws in function in most of the States are of comparatively recent era, deriving from constitutional changes approved in the latter half of the 19 th Century (Lively& Broyles, 2016). Commonly, abortion law performed before the first movement of the fetus was not a chargeable crime, and it is uncertain whether termination of pregnancy was at any time an established common law offence even when it cut short the potential life of a fetus.
Reasoning: three reasons have been advanced for the historical enactment of criminal abortion laws. The first is that the abortion rules and regulations are a result of a Victorian society-based concern aimed at discouraging unlawful sexual conduct. Here, the decision for abortion is left to left to the physician to make medical judgment (Garrow, 2015). The second reason is that the procedure of pregnancy termination is risky; hence, the State’s concern is to safeguard pregnant women. The final reason is State’s concern to protect the unborn child’s potential life.
References
Garrow, D. J. (2015). Liberty and sexuality: The right to privacy and the making of Roe v. Wade . New York: Open Road Media.
Greenhouse, L. & Siegel R. (2012). Before Roe v. Wade: Voices that Shaped the Abortion Debate before the Supreme Court's Ruling. Yale Law School, Public Law Working , 257, 456. Retrieved from https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=2131505
Ziegler, M. (2018). Beyond Abortion: Roe V. Wade and the Battle for Privacy. Cambridge: Harvard University Press.
Forsythe, C. D. (2013). Abuse of Discretion: The Inside Story of Roe v. Wade . New York: Encounter Books.
Hull, N. E. & Hoffer, P. C. (2010). Roe V. Wade: The Abortion Rights Controversy in American History. Lawrence: University Press of Kansas.
Lively, D. E. & Broyles, D. S. (2016). Contemporary Supreme Court Cases: Landmark Decisions since Roe v. Wade, 2nd Edition [2 volumes]: Landmark Decisions since Roe v. Wade. Santa Barbara: ABC-CLIO.
