Title: TSHA | Roe v. Wade
Headings: Roe v. Wade
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Roe v. Wade
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Texas Almanac 2020-2021

Content: Roe v. Wade
Sarah Weddington General Entry
Roe v. Wade. A Texas case stands at the center of years of national debate about the issue of abortion. That case, Roe v. Wade, was decided by the United States Supreme Court on January 22, 1973. The ruling basically held that women have a right, under the Fourteenth Amendment of the United States Constitution, to decide whether to continue or to terminate a pregnancy. It overturned a Texas law making all abortions (except those performed to save the life of the woman) illegal, and by implication overturned antiabortion statutes in most other states. The roots of the case lie in Austin, Texas, during the late 1960s. A group of local volunteers were telling women about birth control and how to avoid pregnancy. Their action followed a 1965 Supreme Court case, Griswold v. Connecticut, which overturned state laws making criminal the use of contraception. However, some women who approached them were already pregnant and wanted to know where and how to get an abortion. The volunteers originally wanted to know whether they could legally provide that information, including information about illegal abortion providers in Texas and Mexico, or whether doing so would subject them to possible prosecution as accomplices to the crime of abortion.