Title: On this day, the Roe v. Wade decision | The National Constitution Center
Headings: On this day, the Roe v. Wade decision
On this day, the Roe v. Wade decision
Content: Texas Assistant Attorney General Robert C. Flowers replaced Jay Floyd for the case’s reargument in front of the Court. Justice Blackmun remained as the justice selected to the Court’s opinion following the second argument, and on January 22, 1973, the Court issued its 7-2 decision. In it, the Court determined that Texas had violated Roe’s constitutional right to privacy. Drawing on the First, Fourth, Ninth, and Fourteenth Amendments, the Court said that the Constitution protects an individual’s “zones of privacy.” Citing earlier cases that ruled that contraception, marriage, and child rearing were activities included in these “zones of privacy,” the Court found that the zone was “broad enough to encompass a woman’s decision whether or not to terminate her pregnancy.” Because the Court determined that abortions were within a woman’s “zone of privacy,” it was therefore ruling that a woman had a fundamental right to the procedure. Although this right was fundamental, that did not mean that it could not be limited. The Court said that as a fundamental right, any limitations on abortion must meet the standards of strict scrutiny. This meant that there must have been “compelling state interest” in regulating abortions, and the legislation must have been narrowly tailored to meet this “compelling” state interest. The Court then assessed the state’s interests.