Of all major United States court cases, quite possibly none are as divisive and impactful as landmark case, Roe vs Wade. As a woman in America, this case is especially important to me, and with recent events and a looming possibility of the case coming under legal contention in the form of an overturn, it is important to discuss the history of this case and what it means for women.
In 1969, a woman by the pseudonym Jane Roe, who later released her identity as Norma McCorvey, became pregnant with a third child that she did not want, nor feel as though she could support the pregnancy and eventual child, and decided she wanted an abortion. However, McCorvey lived in Texas where it was illegal for a woman to get an abortion unless the pregnancy caused a risk to the woman’s life. So, McCorvey filed a lawsuit against her local district attorney, Henry Wade, under the claim that the state’s stance and laws on abortion were unconstitutional. The courts ruled in her favor and when the state of Texas appealed the case, it was brought in front of the U.S. Supreme Court. In 1973, the Supreme Court ruled 7-2 that the Constitution provides a “right to privacy” that protects a pregnant woman’s right to choose whether or not to have an abortion, with some regulation based off of the trimester of the pregnancy.
This monumental case was of great importance to women within the United States, it granted them full bodily autonomy outside of government regulation as well as total privacy and personal freedom. The ability to decide what happens to one’s own body sounds like a basic human right and yet it was not a reality for women in America until the early 70s after decades of fighting.
Many critics of Roe vs Wade claim that this case advocates for the termination of pregnancy as a method of birth control, but what these critics fail to recognize is that even without Roe vs Wade, women in the United States still were undergoing abortion proceedures. These illegal procedures led to the deaths of roughly 130,000 American women within the two years alone before Roe vs Wade was passed (study by Willard Cates, Jr. and Roger Rochat, members of the CDC division on women’s reproductive health and abortions). With the passing of Roe vs Wade, this number dropped by 87% to only 17,000 deaths via unsafe and illegal abortions. Roe vs Wade was a godsend for women’s health and safety. What needs to be understood is that abortion did not begin with Roe vs Wade, but safe abortions did.
As the possibility of a decision against Roe vs Wade looms in the future, it is important to remember that if the concern is to save lives, begin with concern for those that will be lost with unsafe and “back-alley” abortions. Overturning Roe vs Wade won’t end abortion, but rather will create a drastic rise of female deaths from dangerous ones.
Additional Resources:
https://www.ourbodiesourselves.org/book-excerpts/health-article/resources-for-support/