Roe v. Wade
| Roe v. Wade | |
|---|---|
|
|
| Argued December 13, 1971 Reargued October 11, 1972 Decided January 22, 1973 |
|
| Full case name | Jane Roe, et al. v. Henry Wade, District Attorney of Dallas County |
| Citations | 410 U.S. 113 (more)
93 S. Ct. 705; 35 L. Ed. 2d 147; 1973 U.S. LEXIS 159
|
| Argument | Oral argument |
| Reargument | Reargument |
| Prior history | Judgment for plaintiffs, injunction denied, 314 F. Supp. 1217 (N.D. Tex. 1970); probable jurisdiction noted, 402 U.S. 941 (1971); set for reargument, 408 U.S. 919 (1972) |
| Subsequent history | Rehearing denied, 410 U.S. 959 (1973) |
| Holding | |
| Texas law making it a crime to assist a woman to get an abortion violated her due process rights. U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Texas affirmed in part, reversed in part. | |
| Court membership | |
| Case opinions | |
| Majority | Blackmun, joined by Burger, Douglas, Brennan, Stewart, Marshall, Powell |
| Concurrence | Burger |
| Concurrence | Douglas |
| Concurrence | Stewart |
| Dissent | White, joined by Rehnquist |
| Dissent | Rehnquist |
| Laws applied | |
| U.S. Const. Amend. XIV; Tex. Code Crim. Proc. arts. 1191–94, 1196 | |
Roe v. Wade, 410 U.S. 113 (1973), is a landmark decision by the United States Supreme Court on the issue of abortion. It was decided simultaneously with a companion case, Doe v. Bolton. The Court ruled 7–2 that a right to privacy under the Due Process Clause of the 14th Amendment extended to a woman's decision to have an abortion, but that this right must be balanced against the state's interests in regulating abortions: protecting women's health and protecting the potentiality of human life. Arguing that these state interests became stronger over the course of a pregnancy, the Court resolved this balancing test by tying state regulation of abortion to the third trimester of pregnancy.
Later, in Planned Parenthood v. Casey (1992), the Court rejected Roe's trimester framework while affirming its central holding that a woman has a right to abortion until fetal viability. The Roe decision defined "viable" as "potentially able to live outside the mother's womb, albeit with artificial aid." Justices in Casey acknowledged that viability may occur at 23 or 24 weeks, or sometimes even earlier, in light of medical advances.
In disallowing many state and federal restrictions on abortion in the United States,Roe v. Wade prompted a national debate that continues today about issues including whether, and to what extent, abortion should be legal, who should decide the legality of abortion, what methods the Supreme Court should use in constitutional adjudication, and what the role should be of religious and moral views in the political sphere. Roe v. Wade reshaped national politics, dividing much of the United States into pro-abortion and anti-abortion camps, while activating grassroots movements on both sides.
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