What is roe v wade

Quick Facts You Should Know About Roe v. Wade

A short history of the landmark case.

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Nearly 50 years ago, the Supreme Court legalized abortion in the United States with its decision in Roe v. Wade, reshaping the nation’s social and political landscape.

On Monday night, Politico published a leaked draft opinion that said the Supreme Court had privately voted to strike down the decision, setting the stage for abortion-rights battles across the nation and prompting a wave of protests at the Supreme Court in Washington, D.C.

Here are some quick facts you should know about the case.

When was Roe v. Wade decided?

The 7-2 ruling was announced on Jan. 22, 1973. Justice Harry A. Blackmun, a modest Midwestern Republican and a defender of the right to abortion, wrote the majority opinion.

What the case was about.

In short, it is a landmark Supreme Court decision that established a constitutional right to abortion. The ruling struck down laws in many states that had barred abortion, declaring that they could not ban the procedure before the point at which a fetus can survive outside the womb.

That point, known as fetal viability, was around 28 weeks when Roe was decided. Today, because of improvements in medicine, most experts now estimate fetal viability to be about 23 or 24 weeks.

What led to the landmark case?

In 1970, a woman in Texas named Norma McCorvey was five months pregnant with her third child and wanted to have an abortion. Two Dallas lawyers, Sarah Weddington and Linda Coffee, represented her in challenging the state’s prohibition on abortions except to save a mother’s life.

Who are Roe and Wade?

Jane Roe was a pseudonym for Ms. McCorvey, who was 22 when her case was filed. She later spoke out against abortion, but in a documentary in 2020, Ms. McCorvey said she had done so only because she was paid for her advocacy. She died in 2017 at 69.

“Wade” refers to the defendant, Henry Wade, who was the district attorney in Dallas County, Texas, at the time. Mr. Wade died in 2001 at 86.

What else did the case do?

Roe v. Wade created the framework to govern abortion regulation based on the trimesters of pregnancy. In the first trimester, it allowed almost no regulations. In the second, it allowed regulations to protect women’s health. In the third, it allowed states to ban abortions so long as exceptions were made to protect the life and health of the mother.

What happened next.

In 1992, the court tossed the trimester framework in Planned Parenthood v. Casey. However, Casey retained Roe’s “essential holding,” meaning that women have a constitutional right to terminate their pregnancies until fetal viability.

What is Roe v Wade and how does it affect abortion rights in the US?

A woman’s right to have an abortion through the first trimester of pregnancy was protected nationally in 1973 following the supreme court’s landmark ruling

A crowd gather outside the US supreme court in Washington DC on Monday night after a draft opinion indicated the court had provisionally voted to overturn the 1973 case Roe v Wade, the landmark ruling that legalised abortion nationwide in America. Photograph: Anna Johnson/AP

A crowd gather outside the US supreme court in Washington DC on Monday night after a draft opinion indicated the court had provisionally voted to overturn the 1973 case Roe v Wade, the landmark ruling that legalised abortion nationwide in America. Photograph: Anna Johnson/AP

A leaked initial draft majority opinion suggests the US supreme court is poised to vote to overturn the Roe v Wade decision that legalized abortion nationwide, Politico reported on Monday.

The supreme court and the White House have declined to comment.

A woman’s right to have an abortion through the first trimester of pregnancy was protected nationally in 1973, following the supreme court’s landmark 7-2 ruling.

Plaintiff Jane Roe, later identified as Norma McCorvey, was an unmarried pregnant woman who was unable to get an abortion under Texas law, where it was illegal unless to save the life of the mother.

Roe’s lawyers said she was unable to travel out of the state to obtain an abortion and argued the law was too vague and infringed on her constitutional rights.

The ruling

“Pregnancy often comes more than once to the same woman, and in the general population, if man is to survive, it will always be with us,” supreme court justice Harry Blackmun, a Republican nominated by the president Richard Nixon, wrote in the sweeping majority opinion that detailed attitudes about abortion from the time of the Persian empire.

The Texas law infringed on women’s right to privacy, was overly broad and violated the due process clause in the US constitution’s 14th amendment, the decision said.

“Specific and direct harm medically diagnosable even in early pregnancy may be involved. Maternity, or additional offspring, may force upon the woman a distressful life and future. Psychological harm may be imminent. Mental and physical health may be taxed by child care. There is also the distress, for all concerned, associated with the unwanted child, and there is the problem of bringing a child into a family already unable, psychologically and otherwise, to care for it.

“In other cases, as in this one, the additional difficulties and continuing stigma of unwed motherhood may be involved. All these are factors the woman and her responsible physician necessarily will consider in consultation.”

Five Republican-nominated judges were among the majority. The court ruled the state could regulate the procedure during the second trimester and even ban it in most circumstances in the third.

“We do not agree that, by adopting one theory of life, Texas may override the rights of the pregnant woman that are at stake,” Blackmun wrote.

“We repeat, however, that the State does have an important and legitimate interest in preserving and protecting the health of the pregnant woman, whether she be a resident of the State or a nonresident who seeks medical consultation and treatment there, and that it has still another important and legitimate interest in protecting the potentiality of human life. These interests are separate and distinct.”

Justices Byron White, a Democratic appointee, and Republican-nominated William Rehnquist, later US chief justice, dissented.

The decision provoked a firestorm among social and judicial conservatives, who have long sought to undermine or overturn it.

Roe v. Wade

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Roe v. Wade, legal case in which the U.S. Supreme Court on January 22, 1973, ruled (7–2) that unduly restrictive state regulation of abortion is unconstitutional. In a majority opinion written by Justice Harry A. Blackmun, the Court held that a set of Texas statutes criminalizing abortion in most instances violated a woman’s constitutional right of privacy, which it found to be implicit in the liberty guarantee of the due process clause of the Fourteenth Amendment (“…nor shall any state deprive any person of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law”). Roe v. Wade was overturned by the Supreme Court in 2022.

The case began in 1970 when “Jane Roe”—a fictional name used to protect the identity of the plaintiff, Norma McCorvey (1947–2017)—instituted federal action against Henry Wade, the district attorney of Dallas county, Texas, where Roe resided. The Supreme Court disagreed with Roe’s assertion of an absolute right to terminate pregnancy in any way and at any time and attempted to balance a woman’s right of privacy with a state’s interest in regulating abortion. In his opinion, Blackmun noted that only a “compelling state interest” justifies regulations limiting “fundamental rights” such as privacy and that legislators must therefore draw statutes narrowly “to express only the legitimate state interests at stake.” The Court then attempted to balance the state’s distinct compelling interests in the health of pregnant women and in the potential life of fetuses. It placed the point after which a state’s compelling interest in the pregnant woman’s health would allow it to regulate abortion “at approximately the end of the first trimester” of pregnancy. With regard to the fetus, the Court located that point at “capability of meaningful life outside the mother’s womb,” or viability, which occurs at about 24 weeks of pregnancy.

Repeated challenges since 1973 narrowed the scope of Roe v. Wade but did not overturn it. In Planned Parenthood of Southeastern Pennsylvania v. Casey (1992), the Supreme Court established that restrictions on abortion are unconstitutional if they place an “undue burden” on a woman seeking an abortion before the fetus is viable. In Gonzales v. Carhart (2007), the Court upheld the federal Partial-Birth Abortion Ban Act (2003), which prohibited a rarely used abortion procedure known as intact dilation and evacuation. In Whole Woman’s Health v. Hellerstedt (2016), the Court invoked its decision in Casey to strike down two provisions of a Texas law requiring abortion clinics to meet the standards of ambulatory surgical centres and abortion doctors to have admitting privileges at a nearby hospital. Four years later, in June Medical Services L.L.C. v. Russo (2020), the Court invoked Whole Woman’s Health to declare unconstitutional a Louisiana statute that was, as the majority noted, nearly identical to Texas’s admitting-privileges law.

In May 2021 the Supreme Court agreed to review in its October 2021 term a lower court’s decision to strike down a Mississippi state law, adopted in 2018, that banned most abortions after the 15th week of pregnancy, well before the point of fetal viability. Although the law was plainly unconstitutional under Roe v. Wade and Planned Parenthood v. Casey, Mississippi lawmakers passed the measure in the hope that an inevitable legal challenge would eventually make its way to the Supreme Court, where a conservative majority of justices would overturn or drastically reduce the scope of those decisions. The single question that the Court agreed to consider in the case, Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization, was whether bans on all pre-viability abortions are unconstitutional. In May 2022 an apparent draft of a majority opinion in the case, written by Justice Samuel A. Alito, Jr., was leaked to a political news publication in what would be an extraordinary breach of the traditional secrecy in which the Court conducts its deliberations. The opinion, dated February 2022, indicated that the Court had voted to overturn both Roe v. Wade and Planned Parenthood v. Casey. As expected, both Roe and Casey were overturned in the Court’s official decision in Dobbs, issued in June 2022, in which Alito held that there is no constitutional right to abortion.

Roe v. Wade Case Summary: What You Need to Know

By Laura Temme, Esq. | Reviewed by Ally Marshall, Esq. | Last updated June 30, 2022

Editor’s Note: On June 24, 2022, the U.S. Supreme Court released its decision in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health, which overturned Roe v. Wade. Wondering what happens now? Our Supreme Court blog has coverage of the practical effects of the court’s latest decision on abortion and what the future might hold for legal fights over reproductive rights.В

Use these links to jump to different sections:

Roe v. WadeВ is a 1973 lawsuit that famously led to the Supreme Court making a ruling on abortion rights. Jane Roe, an unmarried pregnant woman, filed suit on behalf of herself and others to challenge Texas abortion laws. A Texas doctor joined Roe’s lawsuit, arguing that the state’s abortion laws were too vague for doctors to follow. He had previously been arrested for violating the statute.

At the time, abortion was illegal in Texas unless it was done to save the mother’s life. It was a crime to get an abortion or to attempt one.

InВ Roe v. Wade, the Supreme Court decided two important things:

Legal Arguments

Each side ofВ Roe v. WadeВ used several arguments before the Supreme Court. Below, we outline the main arguments.

Texas Defends Abortion Restriction

The state put forth three main arguments in its case to defend the abortion statute:

Roe Claims Absolute Privacy Rights

Jane Roe and the others involved based their case on the following arguments:

How The Supreme Court DecidedВ Roe v. Wade

The Court split the difference between the two arguments presented. First, the Court recognized that abortion does fall under privacy rights.

The constitutional right to privacy comes from theВ Due Process ClauseВ of theВ Fourteenth Amendment. The Due Process Clause does not explicitly state that Americans have a right to privacy. However, the Supreme Court has recognized such a right going all the way back to 1891. Just one year beforeВ Roe,В the Supreme Court heldВ that «in a Constitution for a free people, there can be no doubt that the meaning of ‘liberty’ must be broad indeed.» InВ Roe v. Wade, the Court decided that this right to privacy extends to control over pregnancy.

The justices acknowledged that being forced to continue a pregnancy puts a lot at risk, such as:

The Court was skeptical of the state’s argument that Constitutional protections begin at conception. The Constitution doesn’t provide a definition of a «person.» But, it does say that its protections cover those who are «born or naturalized» in the United States. After examining other cases relating to unborn children, the Court concluded that «the unborn have never been recognized in the law as persons in the whole sense.»

TheВ Roe v. WadeВ decision also includes a discussion of the different views on when life begins. Many in the Jewish faith, for example, believe that life begins at birth. But, the prevailing view in the Catholic faith is that life begins at conception. Doctor’s views vary, but they tend to lean toward the belief that life begins sometime before birth.В But, the Court found that it is not up to the states to decide when life begins:

«[W]e do not agree that, by adopting one theory of life, Texas may override the rights of the pregnant woman that are at stake.»

However, as we mentioned above, the Court did not agree that the Constitution guarantees an absolute right to an abortion. In other words, the privacy right does not prevent states from puttingВ someВ regulations on abortion.

The Court created a framework to balance the state’s interests with privacy rights. Acknowledging that theВ rights of pregnant people may conflict with the rights of the state to protect potential human life, the Court defined the rights of each party by dividing pregnancy into three 12-week trimesters:

Significance ofВ Roe v Wade

Many think ofВ Roe v. WadeВ as the case that «legalized abortion.» However, that isn’t exactly true. What it did was change the way states can regulate abortion, and characterized abortion as something that was covered under constitutional rights of privacy.

It may come as a surprise thatВ RoeВ did not have much of an impact on the number of abortions performed each year in the United States. According to theВ Guttmacher Institute, in the years beforeВ RoeВ was decided there were over one million illegal abortions performed in the U.S. annually. AfterВ Roe, that number remains around one million, performed legally. Plus, the rate of deaths occurring as the result of abortions dropped dramatically in the years followingВ Roe.

Since the Court’s decision inВ Roe v. Wade, judicial interpretation of the constitution is that abortion is legal. However,В after Roe, many abortion opponents have advocated for stricterВ abortion laws. The opponents haven’t been able to ban abortions outright, but have placed limitations on abortions.В A number of states have placed restrictions on abortions in certain circumstances, including parental notification requirements, mandatory disclosure of abortion risk information, and restrictions on late-term abortions.

The issue is still a hotbed topic in presidential debates and across the nation. States continue to pass abortion regulations that are often challenged in federal courts. But, few make it to the Supreme Court.В This has led many to wonder:В CouldВ Roe v. WadeВ be overturned?

Interesting Facts

Public Reactions

There wasn’t much public reaction to Roe when the Supreme Court first released its decision. However, in the decades that followed it became a significant issue in American politics. Some view the Court’s decision inВ Roe v. WadeВ as «judicial activism,» – meaning the judges based their decision on personal views rather than existing law. But, supporters ofВ RoeВ say it is vital in preserving women’s rights.В

Many opponents of the decision argue that because the text of the Constitution doesn’t explicitly talk about abortion, it should be left up to the states to regulate. Others say that a person should be protected by the Constitution at conception. Under that logic, abortion violates the Constitutional rights of the unborn child.В The Supreme Court even recognized the polarizing nature of the abortion issueВ in its opinion:

«One’s philosophy, one’s experiences, one’s exposure to the raw edges of human existence, one’s religious training, one’s attitudes toward life and family and their values, and the moral standards one establishes and seeks to observe, are all likely to influence and to color one’s thinking and conclusions about abortion.»

As Justice Harry Blackmun (who wrote the decision inВ Roe) points out, abortion will never be a simple issue. It remains a hotly debated topic because someone’s opinion on it depends on their view of the world, and when they believe life begins.

Related Cases

RoeВ would not be the last time the Supreme Court addressed abortion rights. In later cases, the Court upheld the privacy rights tied to abortion. But, they did modify some of the frameworks created inВ Roe.

Whole Woman’s Health v. Hellerstedt

In 2016, the Supreme Court evaluated abortion regulations once again. Texas passed a law in 2013 that placed a series of restrictions on abortion clinics in the state. Among the other requirements, abortion providers had to have «admitting privileges» at a hospital no more than 30 miles away.

Admitting privileges give a doctor the ability to:

The case reached the Supreme Court around the time of Justice Antonin Scalia’s death. So, there were only 8 justices to hear the case. In a 5-3 decision, the Supreme Court found that states cannot place restrictions on abortion clinics that create an «undue burden» for women seeking an abortion.

June Medical Services v. Gee

In 2020, SCOTUS overturned another admitting privileges requirement in June Medical Services v. Gee. Chief Justice John Roberts joined the liberal justices in a 5-4 decision that struck down a Louisiana abortion statute requiring doctors to have admitting privileges. The decision relied heavily on Hellerstedt, and in both decisions, the court observed that abortion is one of the safest medical procedures available today.

Other cases continue to challenge abortion rights today. Given the draft opinion leaked in May 2022, it’s clear that we will see a momentous decision on abortion from the Supreme Court soon. Follow FindLaw’s Supreme Court blog to keep up on analysis of recent decisions.

What is Roe v. Wade? Everything you need to know

In 1973, the U.S. Supreme Court recognized a woman’s constitutional right to an abortion in Roe v. Wade. The landmark ruling legalized abortion nationwide but has been under attack ever since.

Who was the plaintiff in Roe v. Wade?

The case was filed by Norma McCorvey, who went by the anonymous pseudonym «Jane Roe» in court documents.

In 1969, McCorvey, who lived in Texas, was 22, unmarried, and looking to terminate an unwanted pregnancy. But she couldn’t: In Texas, it was abortion was a crime unless a woman’s life was at risk. Similar statutes were in place in nearly every other state at the time.

So McCorvey, seeking to safely and legally abort her pregnancy, sued Henry Wade, the Dallas county district attorney, in 1970. The case went on to the Supreme Court.

Attorney Gloria Allred and Norma McCorvey,’Jane Roe’ plaintiff from landmark court case Roe vs. Wade, during Pro Choice Rally in Burbank, California, on July 4, 1989. Bob Riha, Jr. / Getty Images

What was the Supreme Court’s decision?

On Jan. 22, 1973, the Supreme Court handed down the watershed ruling that a woman’s right to make her own medical decisions, including the choice to have an abortion, is protected under the 14th Amendment.

What changed after Roe v. Wade?

Before the ruling, there were hardly any abortion clinics, since abortion was criminalized in most of the U.S. The Supreme Court’s 7-2 decision impacted laws in 46 states.

While it legalized abortion during the entirety of pregnancy, it stipulated that states could decide whether abortions were allowed during the second and third trimesters.

What was the response?

Reproductive rights activists hailed it as a victory that would result in significantly fewer women getting seriously — or even fatally — injured from abortions by unlicensed providers. Opponents contended it was tantamount to the murder of a fetus.

These viewpoints are still passionately held. The decision has never been overturned, but in the years since, hundreds of state laws have been passed that restrict access to abortion and narrow the scope of the ruling, including the Partial-Birth Abortion Ban Act signed by President George W. Bush in 2003, which outlaws a procedure used to perform second-trimester abortions.

In 2003, a motion to overturn the ruling was filed with the U.S. district court in Dallas by an unlikely character: McCorvey herself.

What became of ‘Jane Roe’?

McCorvey was five months pregnant when she and her attorneys decided to sue. In June 1970, as the case worked its way through the legal system, her baby was born. McCorvey gave the baby girl up for adoption; the adoptive family has kept the child’s identity hidden.

For several years after the ruling, McCorvey lived a low-profile life. Then in the 1980s, she revealed herself to be Jane Roe, and became an outspoken pro-abortion advocate, even working at a Dallas women’s clinic where abortions were performed.

Norma McCorvey poses in Dallas on Jan. 8, 1998. Eric Gay / AP

She changed her tune in 1995, when a Christian group, Operation Rescue, opened next to the clinic. By 1997, she had grown close with the group and became a born-again Christian, traveling around the country to speak out against abortion.

The 2003 motion that McCorvey filed to overturn Roe v. Wade was denied by a federal district court in Dallas that year, then by 5th Circuit Court of Appeals in New Orleans in 2004, and finally by the Supreme Court in 2005.

McCorvey died in an assisted living home in Texas at age 69, in February 2017.