Title: Roe v. Wade - Then and Now - Center for Reproductive Rights
Headings: Roe v. Wade – Then and Now
Roe v. Wade – Then and Now
Content: Roe v. Wade - Then and Now - Center for Reproductive Rights
07.01.2007
Roe v. Wade – Then and Now
Justin Goldberg · No Comments
On January 22, 1973, the United States Supreme Court struck down the State of Texas’s criminal abortion laws, finding that the right to decide whether to have a child is a fundamental right guaranteed by the U.S. Constitution. The 7-2 decision in Roe v. Wade would have an immediate and profound effect on the lives of American women. Before Roe, it is estimated that “between 200,000 and 1.2 million illegally induced abortions occur [red] annually in the United States.” 1 As many as 5,000 to 10,000 women died per year following illegal abortions and many others suffered severe physical and psychological injury. 2
To prevent women from dying or injuring themselves from unsafe, illegal or self-induced abortions, women’s advocates spearheaded campaigns to reverse century-old criminal abortion laws in the decades preceding Roe. During the 1960s and 1970s, a movement of medical, public health, legal, religious and women’s organizations successfully urged one-third of state legislatures to liberalize their abortion statutes. Roe v. Wade is a landmark decision that recognized that the right to make childbearing choices is central to women’s lives and their ability to participate fully and equally in society. Yet, the Supreme Court’s decision in Roe was far from radical — it was the logical extension of High Court decisions on the right to privacy dating back to the turn of the century. The decision is grounded in the same reasoning that guarantees our right to refuse medical treatment and the freedom to resist government search and seizure. In finding that the constitutional right to privacy encompasses a woman’s right to choose whether or not to continue a pregnancy, the High Court continued a long line of decisions recognizing a right of privacy that protects intimate and personal decisions — including those affecting child-rearing, marriage, procreation and the use of contraception — from governmental interference.