Title: Landmark Supreme Court Cases in Women's Rights
Headings: Landmark Supreme Court Cases in Women's Rights
Landmark Supreme Court Cases in Women's Rights
Landmark Supreme Court cases involving women's rights
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Muller v. Oregon (1908)
Adkins v. Children's Hospital (1923)
West Coast Hotel Co. v. Parrish (1937)
Griswold v. Connecticut (1965)
Phillips v. Martin Marietta Corp. (1971)
Reed v. Reed (1971)
Eisenstadt v. Baird (1972)
Pittsburgh Press Co. v. Pittsburgh Commission on Human Relations (1973)
Roe v. Wade (1973)
Doe v. Bolton (1973)
Harris v. McRae (1980)
International Union, UAW v. Johnson Controls, Inc. (1991)
Webster v. Reproductive Health Services (1989)
Planned Parenthood v. Casey (1992)
United States v. Virginia (1996)
Nevada Dept. of Human Resources v. Hibbs (2003)
Jackson v. Birmingham Board of Education (2005)

Content: Roe v. Wade (1973)
In a 7-2 decision, the Court struck down a Texas law restricting abortion. It ruled that a state's interest in protecting both the health of a pregnant woman and potential human life needed to be balanced against a woman's right to privacy, which was now extended to cover a "qualified right to terminate her pregnancy." The Court established a shifting balance over the course of the pregnancy: in the first trimester, the medical judgment of the woman's physician could not be restricted by the state; in the stage between that trimester and the viability of the fetus, the state might "regulate the abortion procedure in ways that are reasonably related to maternal health"; after viability?taken as being the start of the third trimester?the state's interest in potential human life allowed it to "regulate, and even proscribe, abortion except where necessary, in appropriate medical judgment, for the preservation of the life or health of the mother." Doe v. Bolton (1973)
The 7-2 majority that established Roe v. Wade overturned Georgia's abortion law on the same day. Among the law's restrictions were the requirements that the abortion take place in an accredited hospital, that patient obtain the approval of three physicians and the hospital's abortion committee, and that the patient be a resident of Georgia. These restrictions were found to infringe upon the rights of the patient and those of her primary physician. Harris v. McRae (1980)
In a 5-4 ruling, the Court upheld a law barring the use of Medicaid funds for abortions, except in specific cases.