Ms. Gleason's Classroom



Roe v. Wade

Facts

A Texas woman sought to terminate her pregnancy. However, a Texas law made it a crime to procure or attempt an abortion except when the mother’s life would be in danger if she remained pregnant. Ms. Roe challenged the Texas law on the grounds that the law violated her right of personal liberty given in the Fourteenth Amendment and her right to privacy protected by the Bill of Rights.

Issue

Whether state law which bans or regulates abortion violates a woman’s right to privacy or personal choice in matters of family decisions or marriage.

Opinion

The Supreme Court of the United States decided that states could regulate abortions only in certain circumstances but otherwise women did have a right to privacy and reproductive autonomy. The Court divided a woman’s pregnancy into three time periods: 1) during the first trimester (the first three months of pregnancy), states may not interfere with a woman’s decision to have an abortion; 2) during the second trimester, states could regulate abortions, but only if such regulation was reasonably related to the mother’s health; and, 3) during the third trimester, which occurs after the fetus (unborn child) reaches viability (the stage at which it can survive outside the mother’s body), states may regulate absolutely and ban abortions altogether in order to protect the unborn child. The woman’s right to privacy was held to be a fundamental right which could only be denied if a compelling state interest existed. Once the fetus reaches a “viable” stage of development, such a compelling point is reached because the unborn child is now given constitutional protection.

1. In 1973 Roe v. Wade stated what?

2. Do you believe abortion should be legal / illegal and why?

History of Abortion

In the United States, abortion laws began to appear in the 1820s, forbidding abortion after the fourth month of pregnancy.

Through the efforts primarily of physicians, the American Medical Association, and legislators, most abortions in the US had been outlawed by 1900.

Illegal abortions were still frequent, though they became less frequent during the reign of the Comstock Law which essentially banned birth control information and devices.

Some early feminists, like Susan B. Anthony, wrote against abortion. They opposed abortion which at the time was an unsafe medical procedure for women, endangering their health and life. These feminists believed that only the achievement of women's equality and freedom would end the need for abortion. (Elizabeth Cady Stanton wrote in The Revolution, "But where shall it be found, at least begin, if not in the complete enfranchisement and elevation of woman?" ) They wrote that prevention was more important than punishment, and blamed circumstances, laws and the men they believed drove women to abortions. (Matilda Joslyn Gage wrote in 1868, "I hesitate not to assert that most of this crime of child murder, abortion, infanticide, lies at the door of the male sex...")

Later feminists defended safe and effective birth control -- when that became available -- as another way to prevent abortion. (Most of today's abortion rights organizations also state that safe and effective birth control, adequate sex education, available health care, and the ability to support children adequately are essentials to preventing the need for many abortions.)

By 1965, all fifty states banned abortion, with some exceptions which varied by state: to save the life of the mother, in cases of rape or incest, or if the fetus was deformed. Groups like the National Abortion Rights Action League and the Clergy Consultation Service on Abortion worked to liberalize anti-abortion laws.

1. Who did Joslyn Gage think was responsible for many of the abortions in America in the late 1800’s?

2. According to Anthony and Stanton, what would end the need of abortion? (What would solve the problem?) Why?

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