Essay On Roe V. Wade

Roe v. Wade is the most well known case on abortion and was originally located in the US District Court for the Northern District of Texas, but later became a Supreme Court case. Roe’s real name was Norma Leah McCorvey, but she used a pseudonym used to protect her privacy. She wanted to terminate her pregnancy by abortion- which was illegal according to Texas law. A criminal abortion statute was first enacted in Texas in 1854, with the exception of abortion by medical advice for the purpose of saving the life of the mother. She was a single woman in Dallas, Texas and began fighting this action in 1970 against the district attorney of the county. She claimed that her pregnancy was the result of rape in order to strengthen her case, but later publicly admitted that this was a lie. She said that the Texas criminal abortion statutes were unconstitutional, that she was unmarried and pregnant and that she wished to terminate her pregnancy. She also said that her life was not in danger because of the pregnancy, but that she could not afford to travel to another jurisdiction in order to receive a legal abortion under safe

The District Court decided that Jane Roe had standing to undertake this argument and that she presented a justifiable controversy. On January 22, 1973 the US Supreme Court announced its decision in Roe v. Wade, in a 7-2 vote, challenging the Texas statute that made it a crime to perform an abortion unless the woman 's life is at stake. Texas law recognized for the first time that the constitutional right to privacy is broad enough to encompass a woman 's decision whether or not to terminate her pregnancy. Roe v. Wade made all state laws outlawing abortion unconstitutional, except to save a woman 's life or in cases of rape, incest or fetal abnormality. This made abortion services much safer and much more accessible throughout the country. It also set a precedent affecting more than thirty Supreme Court cases involving restrictions on access