Title: Roe v. Wade and the Right to Abortion | NWLC
Headings: Resource
Resource
The Constitutional Right to Privacy Predates Roe v. Wade
The Decision to Have an Abortion is Protected under the Constitutional Right to Privacy
The Evolution of the Constitutional Right to Abortion, Post-Roe v. Wade
The Current Landscape – Roe and the Right to Abortion is Under Constant Attack

Content: Roe v. Wade and the Right to Abortion | NWLC
Resource
Fact Sheets
Download Roe v Wade Right to Abortion Factsheet Jan 2013 PDF
For a PDF version of this factsheet, please see below. The long-standing, well-established constitutional right to privacy places limits on the government’s ability to interfere with a person’s most basic, personal decisions – including the decision whether and when to bear children. The right to abortion was first recognized four decades ago, and the Supreme Court has repeatedly reaffirmed its central holding, yet this fundamental constitutional right is under ever-increasing attack. The Constitutional Right to Privacy Predates Roe v. Wade
In a line of decisions going as far back as 1891, the Supreme Court recognized a right of privacy and bodily integrity, applying it to activities related to marriage, procreation, family relationships, and child rearing and education. In Griswold v. Connecticut, the Supreme Court ruled that the constitutional right to privacy extends to a married couple’s decision to use birth control. Building upon prior precedents including the right to educate one’s children as one chooses, the Court identified a “zone of privacy created by several fundamental constitutional guarantees.” Recognizing the importance of privacy to marriage, the Court in Griswold invalidated a state’s attempt to prohibit married couples from using contraceptives. This right to contraception was soon extended to unmarried individuals in Eistenstadt v. Baird in 1972. As the Supreme Court said, “If the right to privacy means anything, it is the right of the individual, married or single, to be free from unwarranted governmental intrusion into matters so fundamentally affecting a person as the decision whether to bear or beget a child.” The Decision to Have an Abortion is Protected under the Constitutional Right to Privacy
In the 1973 landmark case Roe v. Wade, the Supreme Court applied this core constitutional principle of privacy and liberty to a woman’s ability to terminate a pregnancy.