Roe Vs. Wade Case Study

The Roe vs. Wade case was started by a young woman named Norma McCorvey, better known to the public as Jane Roe. Norma McCorvey was one of many women who wanted to get an abortion, but couldn’t. In the state of Texas getting an abortion was considered a crime. In 1969, Norma McCorvey discovered she was pregnant at 21 years old. McCorvey was unmarried, and already had a 5 year old daughter. Her mother had custody of her daughter, because she couldn’t afford to take care of her. McCorvey was working as a waitress, when she found out she was pregnant. She had previously worked with a traveling circus, selling tickets. She didn’t have any money, and felt like she wasn’t fit to care for a child. Therefore, she wanted to get an abortion. However, where she lived they were

Both Coffee and Weddington were two recent graduates of the University of Texas Law School. McCorvey agreed to be the plaintiff in the case. She was told that she would have to give birth, because the decision wouldn’t arrive soon enough. McCorvey was also concerned about the publicity she would be getting from the case. In order to protect her identity she went by the fictitious name Jane Roe. In 1970, McCorvey filed a lawsuit against district attorney Henry Wade. Henry Wade was the district attorney for Dallas County, where she resided. He was in favor of the abortion laws Texas had in place. Roe vs. Wade first went through federal court, and then it was appealed to the Supreme Court. McCorvey believed Texas abortion law was unconstitutionally vague, and violated her right to privacy. She also wanted to obtain an injunction to prevent Wade from enforcing the law, but it was never issued (“Roe v. Wade” par. 2). McCorvey and her attorneys relied on precedents such as Griswold v. Connecticut and Eisenstadt v. Baird, as well as important constitutional amendments to win the