On Friday, June 24, the Supreme Court overturned America’s constitutional protection of abortion for nearly half a century. This is not surprising, since the confidentiality and secrecy of the Supreme Court was violated when Politico received the draft majority opinion on May 2.
The court’s conservative majority decision overturned the landmark Roe v. Wade decision and is expected to result in a ban on abortion in about half the states.
Brief schedule
June 1970: The Texas District Court ruled that the state’s ban on abortion was illegal because it violated the constitutional right to privacy. Rowe is actually Norma McCorvey, who is suing Henry Wade, Dallas County District Attorney. Wade stated that he would continue to pursue abortion doctors. The case was eventually appealed to the US Supreme Court. McCorvey gave birth and gave the child up for adoption.
1971: The Supreme Court agrees to hear Roe v. Wade. Wade ignored the judgment and both parties filed an appeal.
December 13, 1971: The case is heard in the US Supreme Court.
October 11, 1972 The case is again referred to the US Supreme Court.
January 22, 1973: The U.S. Supreme Court in a 7-2 decision upholds the legality of a woman’s right to an abortion under the 14th Amendment to the Constitution.
Court decision 1973
The court divided the pregnancy into three trimesters and ruled that the choice of terminating the pregnancy in the first trimester was entirely up to the woman. In the second trimester, the government may regulate abortion, but not ban it, to protect the health of the mother.
In the third trimester, the state may ban abortion to protect the fetus, which can survive on its own outside the uterus, unless the woman’s health is in danger.
What is the 14th Amendment
The 14th Amendment to the US Constitution was ratified in 1868 during the Reconstruction era to abolish slavery and establish civil and legal rights for black Americans. The third clause, “no state shall deprive any person of life, liberty, or property without due process of law,” expanded the due process clause of the Fifth Amendment to apply to the states as well as the federal government.
Over time, the Supreme Court has interpreted this clause as guaranteeing a wide range of rights against violation by the states, as well as the right to privacy and other fundamental rights not mentioned elsewhere in the Constitution.
Change of sides
In 1997, McCorvey founded Roe No More, an anti-abortion awareness and education organization, which was disbanded in 2008. In 1998, she was received into the Catholic Church.
In 2003, McCorvey filed a motion in Dallas federal district court to dismiss the case and asked the court to consider new evidence that abortion harms women. The application was rejected in 2004.
Shortly before her death on February 18, 2017, McCorvey was interviewed for the AKA Jane Row documentary, which was released in 2020. McCorvey told the film’s director that she had not changed her mind about abortion, but had become anti-abortion. activist because she was paid.
There are conflicting opinions in many sources about how she felt about this issue.
Today’s Arguments
The leaked documents were from Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization on the constitutionality of a 2018 Mississippi law that bans most abortion procedures after the first 15 weeks of pregnancy. The lower courts prevented enforcement of the law with preliminary injunctions.
Oral arguments in the Supreme Court took place in December 2021.
Sources: Associated Press, History.com, The Pew Research Center, Guttmacher.org, Focus on the Family.
