Norma Mccorvey Lawsuit Against The State Of Texas

Scared. Abandoned. Vulnerable. Lost. Angry. Lonely. These are just a few of the emotions that most likely raced through Norma McCorvey’s mind when the young, unmarried waitress found out she was pregnant. After finding out that Texas law forbid her from getting an abortion, McCorvey took on the pseudonym of Jane Roe and filed a class-action lawsuit against the state of Texas (Lewis). Norma McCorvey completely changed the abortion debate when she stood up against the state of Texas and demanded her rights. McCorvey’s resistance would lead to Roe v. Wade, a groundbreaking court case, and change the course of pregnancies in America forever. Restrictions against abortions in the United States date back to colonial times. The American Colonies

Instead of staying silent like hundreds of thousands of women before her, McCorvey decided it was time for a change. After taking on the pseudonym of Jane Roe, a well known feminist lawyers Sarah Weddington and Linda Coffee decided to take on McCorvey’s case. In 1971, the case reached the Supreme Courts as a civil rights case. After over a year of debate, the Supreme Court ruled that women had the Constitutional right to an abortion (Abortion). To summarize, Roe v. Wade essentially declared abortion to be a woman’s constitutional right and that it would be legal in every state. From this decision, the United States Supreme Court declared that having an abortion was far safer than a natural child birth. In that court room, it was also determined that the word “person” did not include an unborn fetus (Kaplan). The country was completely divided on the Roe v. Wade decisions. Many American’s were angered by the fact that the United States no longer legally considered an unborn fetus to be a person. However, it was a huge relief for many young women across the country. According to Ballaro Wagner and Beverly Geraldine, approximately 20% of women requesting abortions are minors under the age of 18 (Wagner). Parents must be notified before a minor can get an abortion, but to many young girls with accidental pregnancies, Roe v. Wade was a second

Wade case, abortion became an extremely emotional political topic. For many, the court ruling completely changed the course of their lives. However, the subject of abortion had not made its final appearance in the court room. Three years after Roe v. Wade, The Hyde Amendment of 1976 restricted government funding of abortion. The Amendment would lead to 35% of pregnant women wanting abortions unable to get one (Abortion Timeline). Though the supreme court had ruled abortion to be legal, it was still nearly impossible for the average American woman to get one. Just like every other time the American people do not get what they want, riots began. People began attacking abortion centers and attempting to take matters into their own hands. In 1982 members of the group Army of God, an anti-abortion terrorism group, kidnapped a doctor and his wife (“Anti-Abortion Extremists"). This was one of many violent abortion related attacks in the United States. In 2017, abortion is still a sore subject for many Americans. The thing many people do not realize, is that in more cases than not, an abortion is the last resort. Often, it is something mothers flee to in a time of desperation and pain. Frederica Mathews-Green said, “No woman wants an abortion as she wants an ice cream cone or a Porsche. She wants an abortion as an animal caught in a trap wants to gnaw off its own leg.” The point Mathews-Green makes in this quote is very strong and powerful. No one