Type a new keyword(s) and press Enter to search

Roe v. Wade

 

             Wade, one of the most famous Supreme Court cases in history, was one of the most crucial steps ever made in the ongoing battle of legalizing abortion. This all started when a pregnant single woman (Jane Roe) brought a class action challenging the constitutionality of the Texas criminal abortion laws. She took the biggest steps anyone has ever taken to legalize abortion.
             This all started when Norma McCorvey became pregnant in the summer of 1969. The 21-year-old woman's marriage had failed, and her mother and stepfather were raising her five-year-old daughter. McCorvey did not want to continue her pregnancy. Since Texas law prohibited abortion except to save a woman's life, McCorvey began to look for someone to perform one illegally. Although she not successful in that search, she did meet Sarah Weddington and Linda Coffee, two attorneys interested in changing the abortion laws. McCorvey agreed to become a plaintiff in the "Jane Roe" test case. (Years after the trial, McCorvey came forward under her own name.).
             They faced two difficulties. Texas had passed its abortion law in 1859. Like similar laws in other states, it did not target the women who needed abortion, but those who performed them. This meant McCorvey might not have "standing to sue." Second, if McCorvey gave birth, or passed the point in her pregnancy where an abortion could not be safely performed, the case would become irrelevant. She filed it at the Dallas Federal Courthouse on March3, 1970. .
             The Ninth Amendment states that "the enumeration in the Constitution, of certain rights, shall not be construed to deny or disparage others retained by the people."(www.galegroup.com) Coffee and Weddington argued that the right to privacy also protected a woman's right to bear a child. District Attorney John Tolle assigned to defend Attorney Wades right to enforce the Texas abortion law filed a request to speak with McCorvey. She did not come forward, but her attorneys submitted an anonymous affidavit for her.


Essays Related to Roe v. Wade