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Roe V. Wade Case on Abortion

Roe v. Wade was a landmark decision by the supreme court in 1973 establishing women’s legal rights to abortion (Nunez-Eddy, Claudia, and Sharaden). The case began in 1970 when federal action was instituted against Henry Wade by Jane Roe in Texas. The case was heard by the district attorney of Dallas in Texas. Supreme court was against Jane Roe’s assertions of an absolute right to end the pregnancy in any method, at a convenient time and due to this, it attempted to balance the States’ interest in regulating abortion with the women’s right of privacy.

Blackmun ascertained that only an irresistible state interest makes the justifications for the regulations limiting the fundamental rights of women that include privacy (Goldenberg). Besides, the legislators should, therefore, extract statutes carefully to ensure the expression of legitimate interests that are at stake. As a result, the court as well decided to steady the state’s interest in the pregnant women’s health as well as the life of the unborn. The state’s interests were placed in the pregnant woman’s health and thus allowed them to control abortion mostly at the end of the first trimester of a woman’s pregnancy. Concerning the fetus, the Supreme court sighted the capability of worthwhile life away from the mother’s womb.

The United Supreme Court in 1973 made its ruling in Roe V. Wade case, and in a 7-2 decision that a woman’s right to prefer an abortion was guaranteed by the privacy rights that are guaranteed by the United States Constitution under the fourteenth amendment. According to the ruling, it was therefore unconstitutional for the state to regulate abortion. According to the majority opinion that was written by Justice Blackmun, the supreme court ascertained that a set of the Texas’ statute that criminalized abortion were in violation of the women’s constitutional right to privacy, which the Supreme Court found connected to the liberty assurance of the due process clause traced back to the fourteenth amendment that states ‘Nor shall any state deprive any person of life, property, or liberty, without due process of law” (Chemerinsky).

The dissenting opinions were provided by White and Rehnquist stated that the right to privacy was not a present issue and that the control of abortion should have been handled as an economic and as well a social regulation that are approved if it met a rational basis standard review. An extensive decision with no states interest during the first trimester of pregnancy is improper”.

Roe V. Wade was a landmark case as it provided women with the legal rights to abortion stipulating that the rights are guaranteed under the fourteenth amendment that covers the privacy for medical operations. Abortion is a medical operation, and this means that it fits under the right to privacy. Any woman who wishes to conduct an abortion, therefore, should not be censored in that the state has no mandate and it is against the constitution to prohibit women from conducting abortion procedures safely and conveniently at the time they wish.

I do concur with the majority opinion that the women’s right of abortion is guaranteed under the constitution. A woman has the right to have an abortion as the right already exists and cannot be outweighed by the interests of the state. The reasons as to why abortion had been criminalized were to discourage illicit sexual conduct, preserve the states interest in protecting the sanctity of life and protect the pregnant women against dangerous abortion procedures. The grounds of prohibition are no longer valid as the discouraging the illicit sexual conduct, although the courts do not seriously consider the tradition. Furthermore, modern medical techniques facilitate effective and safe abortion. A pregnant mother cannot be prosecuted for the act of abortion and therefore protecting the prenatal life would be difficult, and therefore there was no need to criminalize abortion.

Works Cited

Chemerinsky, Erwin. Constitutional law. Wolters Kluwer Law & Business, 2016.

Goldenberg, David. “The Right to Abortion: Expansion of the Right to Privacy Through the Fourteenth Amendment.” The Catholic Lawyer 19.1 (2017): 11.

Nunez-Eddy, Claudia, and Sharaden Seward. “Roe v. Wade (1973).” Embryo Project Encyclopedia (2018).