Title: Roe v. Wade Case Brief
Headings: v.
Roe v. Wade
Roe v. Wade Summary
Key Players in Roe v. Wade
Roe v. Wade Brief
Roe v. Wade Facts
The Roe v. Wade Decision
Key Takeaways for Law Students

Content: The Court clarified that, while the “Constitution does not explicitly mention any right of privacy”, the kind of right to personal privacy claimed by Roe is implied by the Fourteenth Amendment and does include the woman’s right to choose to terminate her pregnancy. The harm to the state in allowing a pregnancy to go forward would pale, the Court noted, in comparison to potential medical harms, psychological harms, or stigmas posed to an individual by an unwanted pregnancy. The Court did not go so far as to say that abortions should be allowed without restriction but, rather, defined a framework within which regulation of abortion would be appropriate. The Court stated that the right to choose to have an abortion is limited by state interests in health issues surrounding pregnancies. The Court’s decision reviewed the historical rationale behind anti-abortion laws, including the government interests regarding “protecting the potentiality of human life” and in “protecting the health of pregnant women”, noting that those interests are time-limited and are not “compelling” for the government until after the first trimester of a pregnancy when a live birth is almost certain. It noted that physicians and patients should have broad discretion in deciding whether to terminate a pregnancy before the pregnancy gets to the point where it involves a compelling government interest. Applying that analysis to the Texas statute at issue, the Court concluded that the Texas law was “overbroad” because it did not allow for physicians and their patients to make termination decisions in the fragile early stages of a pregnancy and did not allow for other reasons for terminating a pregnancy. The Court concluded that valid government regulation of abortion takes place only after the first trimester and that, prior to that stage, denial of access to an abortion deprives citizens of fundamental liberties without due process of law. The Court left the decision of whether to impose an injunction on the state because, regardless, the state was obligated to recognize the Supreme Court’s holding that the law was unconstitutional and repeal the law (or adjust it to conform to the standards that the Court set out with respect to regulation in various stages of a pregnancy). Key Takeaways for Law Students
1 State laws which broadly allow a state to deny an abortion to a woman are unconstitutional because they violate the right to personal privacy included in the Fourteenth Amendment.