Roe V Wade Case Analysis

Document Type:Thesis

Subject Area:Law

Document 1

This essay is going to discuss the history of Roe V Wade case and analyze the underlying states constitutional rights graded to women that might have influenced the ruling in the case. This essays will also discuss the legislative issue that was observed in the ruling of the Roe versus Wade case, constructional underlying of women privacy right and healthcare choice. Also the issue of state intervention to the matter of abortion in the interest of saving mother’s life when in danger and life of the unborn child when the mother is not in danger. Additionally, the essay will explain the possible impacts of overturning this landmark Supreme court rolling to the U. S legislative system in future, the group of people that are affected by this ruling and lastly the future of the law on abortion.

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By 'abortion' is meant that the life of the fetus or embryo shall be destroyed in the woman's womb or that a premature birth thereof be caused” (U. S constitution article 1191). A woman by the name “Jane Roe” who was unmarried, she was raped and become pregnant, and due to that, she opted to have a legal, safe abortion. “Jane Roe” sued the Dallas County district attorney by the name ‘Henry Wade, ‘who represented Texas state by then for stabling a statue that is disallowing abortion ("U. s. Therefore, women should be granted the freedom to decide the fate of their pregnancy (Roe v. Wade, 1973). The case determination was guided by the Fourteen Amendment that states that the federal government or state government should not apply legislation that intrudes citizens’ personal life (Robinson, 2012).

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This means that woman should be graded right to privacy on matters that concern their bodies and healthcare decisions. According to Fourteenth Amendment to the US Constitution 1866 section 1 “All persons born or naturalized in the United States and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States and of the State wherein they reside. This case enabled the Supreme Court to tackle two hot political issues at the same time, protection of equal rights for women as well as a medical patient’s right to privacy. (Schorow, 2010) The decision of U. S Supreme Court was not abortion right to be declared as absolute. Also, the court did not only consider the women’s rights to privacy but also looked into the interest of states to the issue of abortion.

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Therefore, the ruling declared that abortion could only be legal when the fetus is ‘viable’ that is after 28 days when it can survive outside the woman’s womb. During 2nd trimester, woman has abortion rights, however the state is allowed to intervene to the abortion act to save the woman’s life if it’s in danger (Roe v. Wade, n. d. Lastly, the state is allowed by the court to intervene in abortion action during the third trimester to protect the life of the unborn baby but only when the life of the mother is safe. Impact: In the immediate timeline, this ruling was a landmark victory for women’s rights activists and a huge loss to the Catholic Church.

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The Supreme Court ruled on the Constitutionality of abortion in nineteen seventy-three, and it has held its legal ground. Case decision: There was an affirmation of the legality of the woman’s right to conduct an abortion, as implied under the 14th amendment to the constitution. Case reason: the case was filed by Norma L. McCorvey, as she wanted to abort her third child, and the case was filed under the Name of an alias, Jane Roe. This happened because, in the Texas laws, abortion was only permitted in the name of a rape case or incest, and no other reason would be allowed for abortion. Serious complications have become very rare in legal abortion. The statistics in the US shows maternal deaths are not found each year due to unsafe abortions.

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The maternal mortality rate dropped dramatically. Attempting to overturn Roe has been ongoing. The government law does not allocate funds to support abortion thereby limiting the abortion access. For individuals that have this view, abortion is pretty much never permissible. It does not matter whether the pregnancy is in the first trimester or at any other point in the pregnancy. In the mind of these individuals, there are very few times when abortion is permissible, and those are the times when a pregnancy is involved; the life of the woman is at risk. Secondly, there is a dangerous anomaly with the woman’s pregnancy, thirdly, the women got pregnancy through ‘Incest,’ and lastly, the woman got the pregnancy through ‘rape. ’ The decision of the on Roe v.

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This case would end up becoming one of the United States Supreme Court benchmark rulings that is still heavily debated and politicized today. The biggest legal criticism of the case was that restricting abortion law was inconsistent with the act that the ‘fetus’ can be entitled to protection as a person. Hence, the court gave the abortion decision in all aspects in the hand of the physician or the medical team, and did not consider it as intentional killing of human life and constitutional protection of life responsibility of court was evaded in this case. The Pro-Choice Issues Also, there are other groups consists of individuals who believe in “pro-choice. ” These individuals argue that a woman has the moral right to conduct abortion at her free will without interference.

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Abortion remains to be the most controversial legislative issue. Additionally, it’s very personal, religious, political and moral topic. Throughout this paper, we will examine the contrasting perspectives from which this topic is viewed. The pro-choice (individual choice) groups believe that life begins after fertilization but not after conception. Additionally, the court made the ruling on when the state should intervene into pregnancy to protect the mother’s life and life of unborn child. S Constitution Art. This forced many women to seek unlicensed physicians from ‘backdoor’ who had to have to perform the risky process on the risking their life (Ushistory. org, 2013). Finally, some individuals believe that abortion is morally permissible depending on what stage of the pregnancy the female is in.

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These individuals believe that if the abortion is performed in the first trimester, then it is morally permissible. Additionally, she was unable to afford the cost of moving to another state to get the abortion procedure. But Roe was aware of risks involved in seeking abortion from unlicensed individuals in ‘backstreet,’ so she opted to sue the state’s anti-abortion statue to get the right to perform abortion (Ushistory. org, 2013). The abortion cases that followed after the 1973 case of Roe v. Wade were influenced by its ruling. Wade decision, but instead of allowing the permitting abortion process in 1st trimester as the liberty protected under fourteenth amendment, the time frame for allowing abortion was now tied to viability of the fetus when the fetus is able to live when out of the mother’s uterus.

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   Later in the year 2007 Alberto Gonzalez who was U. S Attorney General by then appealed to the Stenberg versus Carhart ruling and Supreme Court legalized the 2003 act legalizing Partial-Birth Abortion. The court argued that a ban of Partial-Birth Abortion Act isn’t considerate to reason that drives women to do abortion like the way Roe v. Wade did. Impacts On Right to privacy Overturning the Supreme court ruling will act as an intrusion to citizens right to privacy. According to Fourteenth Amendment, no one is allowed to deprive individual privacy without following the due process provided by the law. Additionally, the Ninth Amendment says that some law should not be wrongly interpreted to deny some choice to healthcare service. Therefore, the overturning of this ruling will give states authority to intervene in the women’s pregnancy at whatever semester.

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The decision of Supreme Court in favor of Roe was guided by earlier legal establishment prohibiting interference with privacy, personal life, and healthcare choices. The other case closely related to that of Griswold v. Connecticut is the Eisenstadt v. Baird case in 1972. The court found that the same decision made on the married couple applies to Eisenstadt v. Baird which involved single persons (Planned Parenthood, 2013). The women’s right to privacy is broad; it also includes the rights to decide whether to keep the pregnancy or commit an abortion. Women: One of the leading group of people who will be directly affected by the overturning decision made on Roe versus Wade case by supreme court is women. Overturning of this ruling in future will result to the following; Women partaking of abortion will be illegal.

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Secondly, women will opt to seek abortion from unlicensed individuals which is unsafe and poses life and health risk, thirdly, there will no control of childbirth leading to overpopulation in the country, fourth, it will amount to the intrusion of privacy of women, and lastly, the women private health choices are taken away. Overturning of this ruling will deprive women’s a say to their personal life decisions and healthy choices. Currently, women are free to access health centers for legal and safe abortion practiced by licensed physicians. This has lead to a reduction in deaths and health complications resulting from unsafe abortion done by unqualified and unlicensed individuals in a backstreet. Also, health practitioners nowadays are free to offer the abortion process to willing clients without fear of being prosecuted by the state (Challenges to the Birth Control Coverage Benefit - NWLC.

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Pro-Lifers Group: The other group which will be affected by the overturning of decision on Roe versus Wade case is social groups who fight for life or pro-lifers. This group is composed of Religious people or groups who are always against abortion, Medical practitioners who are involved in performing an abortion, Traditional conservative people who believe abortion is a sin and Ethics and right groups who teach against abortion. In the pro-lifers group, there are traditional conservatives and ethics & moral, social organizations, i. e. , Hunan Rights international who have been lobbying for the establishment to of anti-abortion laws. Majority of the proposed conservatives laws are not applicable because they are unconstitutional. The ethics and moral prepositions make most of the people fall dilemma about the issue of abortion.

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As a result of a high birth rate, there will be an increase in population all across the United States. A child’s life should not be terminated because she did apply to be born and the pregnancy conception was not its fault. However, where conception of pregnancy was as result of rape the unwillingness of a lady not to raise pregnancy she did not plan for should be considered. When it comes to the issuing of determining the viability of the baby, nowadays it is hard to determine the time. This is because some babies are born earlier than expected time a proof that their viability may be earlier than the 28 days of the first trimester. Wade and Its Impact [ushistory.

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org]. The Supreme Court ruling on Roe versus Wade case left a significant mark in history of women's rights and will remain to be a controversial decision. Overturning of this historic Supreme Court decision will move back the progress of women rights that have been made over time. The state's government should not be allowed to interfere with the freedom of women to healthcare choices or intrude into women’s privacy because ninth and fourteen constitutional clauses protect this women's right. Before this court ruling, abortion was severe illegality which attracted a hefty fine or imprisonment for a time. What this meant for the females who became pregnant was that they were legally obligated to allow the pregnancy to go full term or end due to natural causes.

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These laws did not take into account how the females became pregnant. They could have become pregnant through sexual promiscuity or rape and incest. Abortions were still carried out despite legal restrictions, but they were often done secretively by individuals who did not have a proper medical education. This court’s ruling overturned the state's laws that restricted abortion. Up to today, that court’s decision remains to be controversial in American history. Also, the decision had a significant political impact in the American politics. It played a significant role in reshaping the political ideology in the country. It divided the U. Retrieved from https://nwlc. org/resources/challenges-birth-control-coverage-benefit/ Induced Abortion in the United States. Retrieved from https://www. guttmacher. org/fact- sheet/induced-abortion-united-states menu Roe v.

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