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Rehnquist also dissented in Roe v. Wade (1973), in which the majority based a woman’s right to an abortion on a constitutional right of privacy that arose not from the terms but from the “penumbras” of the Bill of Rights.
Roe v. Wade, 410 U.S. 113 (1973), was a landmark decision of the U.S. Supreme Court in which the Court ruled that the Constitution of the United States generally protected a right to have an abortion.
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Summary. At a time when Texas law restricted abortions except to save the life of the mother, Jane Roe (a single, pregnant woman) sued Henry Wade, the local district attorney tasked with enforcing the abortion statute. She argued that the Texas law was unconstitutional.
- Abortion Before Roe v. Wade
- Jane Roe
- Henry Wade
- Supreme Court Ruling
- Legacy of Roe v. Wade
- Roe v. Wade Overturned
- Sources
Until the late 19th century, abortion was legal in the United States before “quickening,” the point at which a woman could first feel movements of the fetus, typically around the fourth month of pregnancy. Some of the early regulations related to abortion were enacted in the 1820s and 1830s and dealt with the sale of dangerous drugs that women used...
In 1969, Norma McCorvey, a Texaswoman in her early 20s, sought to terminate an unwanted pregnancy. McCorvey, who had grown up in difficult, impoverished circumstances, previously had given birth twice and given up both children for adoption. At the time of McCorvey’s pregnancy in 1969 abortion was legal in Texas—but only for the purpose of saving a...
In 1970, the attorneys filed a lawsuit on behalf of McCorvey and all the other women “who were or might become pregnant and want to consider all options,” against Henry Wade, the district attorney of Dallas County, where McCorvey lived. Earlier, in 1964, Wade was in the national spotlight when he prosecuted Jack Ruby, who killed Lee Harvey Oswald, ...
In June 1970, a Texas district court ruled that the state’s abortion ban was illegal because it violated a constitutional right to privacy. Afterward, Wade declared he’d continue to prosecute doctors who performed abortions. The case eventually was appealed to the U.S. Supreme Court. Meanwhile, McCovey gave birth and put the child up for adoption. ...
Norma McCorvey maintained a low profile following the court’s decision, but in the 1980s she was active in the abortion rights movement. However, in the mid-1990s, after becoming friends with the head of an anti-abortion group and converting to Catholicism, she turned into a vocal opponent of the procedure. Since Roe v. Wade, many states imposed re...
In 2022, the nation's highest court deliberated on Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization, which regarded the constitutionality of a Mississippi law banning most abortions after 15 weeks of pregnancy. Lower courts had ruled the law was unconstitutional under Roe v. Wade. Under Roe, states had been prohibited from banning abortions before arou...
Abortion in American History. The Atlantic. High Court Rules Abortion Legal in First 3 Months. The New York Times. Norma McCorvey. The Washington Post. Sarah Weddington. Time. When Abortion Was a Crime, Leslie J. Reagan. University of California Press.
Roe v. Wade MR. JUSTICE REHNQUIST, dissenting. The Court's opinion brings to the decision of this troubling question both extensive historical fact and a wealth of legal scholarship. While the opinion thus commands my respect, I find myself nonetheless in fundamental disagreement with those parts of it that invalidate the Texas statute in
1 day ago · Roe v. Wade, legal case in which the U.S. Supreme Court on January 22, 1973, ruled (7–2) that unduly restrictive state regulation of abortion is unconstitutional. The Court held that a set of Texas statutes criminalizing abortion in most instances violated a constitutional right to privacy.
The 7-2 decision was supported by Chief Justice Warren E. Burger and six other Justices and was opposed by Justices William Rehnquist and Byron White. [3] The decision divided the United States into pro-life and pro-choice camps and is still controversial.
