Title: Supreme Court Issues its Decision on Roe v Wade | World History Project
Headings: Supreme Court Issues its Decision on Roe v Wade
Supreme Court Issues its Decision on Roe v Wade
Content: Kevin Rogers
ROE v. WADE
Decided January 22, 1973
MR. JUSTICE BLACKMUN delivered the opinion of the Court. MR. JUSTICE REHNQUIST, dissenting. MR. JUSTICE STEWART, concurring. A pregnant single woman (Roe) brought a class action challenging the constitutionality of the Texas criminal abortion laws, which proscribe procuring or attempting an abortion except on medical advice for the purpose of saving the mother's life. A licensed physician (Hallford), who had two state abortion prosecutions pending against him, was permitted to intervene. A childless married couple (the Does), the wife not being pregnant, separately attacked the laws, basing alleged injury on the future possibilities of contraceptive failure, pregnancy, unpreparedness for parenthood, and impairment of the wife's health. A three-judge District Court, which consolidated the actions, held that Roe and Hallford, and members of their classes, had standing to sue and presented justiciable controversies.