Title: What is Roe v. Wade? Everything you need to know
Headings: What is Roe v. Wade? Everything you need to know
What is Roe v. Wade? Everything you need to know
Who was the plaintiff in Roe v. Wade?
What was the Supreme Court's decision?
What changed after Roe v. Wade?
What was the response?
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What was the Supreme Court's decision? On Jan. 22, 1973, the Supreme Court handed down the watershed ruling that a woman's right to make her own medical decisions, including the choice to have an abortion, is protected under the 14th Amendment. What changed after Roe v. Wade? Before the ruling, there were hardly any abortion clinics, since abortion was criminalized in most of the U.S. The Supreme Court's 7-2 decision impacted laws in 46 states. While it legalized abortion during the entirety of pregnancy, it stipulated that states could decide whether abortions were allowed during the second and third trimesters. What was the response? Reproductive rights activists hailed it as a victory that would result in significantly fewer women getting seriously — or even fatally — injured from abortions by unlicensed providers. Opponents contended it was tantamount to the murder of a fetus. Recommended
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These viewpoints are still passionately held. The decision has never been overturned, but in the years since, hundreds of state laws have been passed that restrict access to abortion and narrow the scope of the ruling, including the Partial-Birth Abortion Ban Act signed by President George W. Bush in 2003, which outlaws a procedure used to perform second-trimester abortions.