Last Updated: 01/28/2005 

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 Roe v. Wade background information

By Maria Ignatova

The suit against the state of Texas was brought by a 25-year-old single woman Jane Roe. Claiming she was raped, she challenged the state laws prohibiting abortion.

Henry Wade was the Texas state lawyer who defended the anti-abortion law.

Roe’s case was rejected and she was forced to give birth.

In 1973 the Supreme Court agreed on hearing her appeal. In a controversial 7-2 ruling the court concluded that a woman’s right to terminate her pregnancy came under the freedom of personal choice in family matters as protected by the 14th Amendment.

The Supreme Court decision introduced the trimester system that:

  • gives American women an absolute right to an abortion in the first three months of pregnancy
  • allows some government regulation in the second trimester of pregnancy
  • declares that states may restrict or ban abortions in the last trimester as the fetus nears the point where it could live outside the womb; in this trimester a woman can obtain an abortion despite any legal ban only if doctors certify it is necessary to save her life or health.
    •  In the last decade, however, anti-abortion activists have made their case increasingly popular. In 2003, Congress passed the first law in 30 years which substantially limited abortion rights. The legislators approved a bill banning late-term, or “partial birth,” abortions. The bill was later signed into law by President Bush.

     

    "We are not satisfied with this decision... women deserve better than abortion."

    Theresa Dougherty

    Vice-President, Students For Life

     

    "I am pro-choice...and it's choices. It's abortion, it's adoption, it's pre-natal care, it's contraception, it's emergency contraception, it's all reproductive freedom rights."

    Caitlin Mullen

    President, Students For Choice