EXPLAINED: What Is Roe Vs Wade? 1973 US Supreme Court Ruling That Protected Right To Abortion And Now Stands Overturned
The 1973 Roe Vs Wade decision by the Supreme Court was called a landmark ruling.
A little more than a month after a leaked draft opinion suggested that the Supreme Court of the United States could overturn the historic 1973 Roe Vs Wade decision that made abortion a constitutional right, the worst nightmare of many American women came true Friday as the apex court actually struck down the ruling. The court overturned the landmark judgment by a 6-3 majority.
What Was Roe Vs Wade?
The 1973 Roe Vs Wade decision by the Supreme Court was called a landmark ruling as it legalised abortion across the US. The majority opinion had then found termination of pregnancy during the first three months an absolute right.
The name of the lawsuit was Roe Vs Wade.
The plaintiff in the case was Norma McCorvey, a 22-year-old unmarried and unemployed Texas woman, and Jane Roe was actually a pseudonym. She was pregnant for the third time in 1969, and sought to have an abortion. The US Supreme Court ruling came in her favour in 1973, though she had by then delivered a baby girl who she later put up for adoption, according to an AP report.
Roe had sued Henry Wade, the district attorney of Dallas County, Texas, whose job was to enforce a state law that prohibited abortion except in cases where the mother’s life is in danger.
In her petition, Roe had alleged that the Texas law was “unconstitutionally vague and violated her constitutionally protected right to personal privacy”, the AP report said. Her question before the apex court was: “Does the Constitution recognize a woman’s right to terminate her pregnancy by abortion?”
It did, found the 7-2 majority opinion delivered by Justice Harry Blackmun. The court, however, made it clear that the protection had to be balanced against the government’s interests in protecting the health of women and “the potentiality of human life”.
The SC also said a woman’s decision on abortion during the first three months of pregnancy must be left to her and her doctor.
In 1973, when the court ruling came, abortion was by and large legal in only four states, while 16 others allowed it under limited circumstances. There was a total ban on abortion in the remaining 30 states. The SC decision, however, nullified them because constitutional rights are superior to state laws in the country. The court, nevertheless, allowed states to impose certain regulations during the second trimester, and take steps to protect foetal life in the third.
In 1992, when Pennsylvania abortion laws were challenged in Blackmun’s court, it upheld the right to abortion, but made it easier for states to impose regulations, the AP report said.
Texas state has since banned most abortions after about six weeks.
What Happens In The US Now?
As aniticipated after the draft was leaked, the overturning of ‘Roe Vs Wade’ leaves abortion laws entirely up to the states, since there is no federal law that protects the right to abortion in the US. Things could go back to pre-1973 status when abortions were totally prohibited. Conservative states will most likely bring back those restrictive laws.
According to an old report in The New York Times, with the ‘Roe’ protection cover blown, the number of legal abortions could fall by at least 14%. The report cited the figure quoting research based on a Texas study of the effects of the closures of abortion clinics between 2013 and 2016.
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