ROE V. WADE
Year: 1973
Result: 7:2, favor Roe
Related Constitutional issue/amendment: 9th amendment (right to privacy); 10th amendment (police powers); 14th amendment (due process)
Civil Rights or Civil Liberties: Liberties
Significance/Precedent: Abortion was officially made legal (with some regulations) and a fundamental right, so it had to be applied to the states through selective incorporation. The regulations were that women could choose to have an abortion during the first two trimesters, but states could regulate abortions in the second trimester and restrict abortions in the third trimester, but had to allow abortions that save the life or preserve the health of the mother.
Quote from majority opinion: "The Court's decisions recognizing a right of privacy also acknowledge that some state regulation in areas protected by that right is appropriate. As noted above, a State may properly assert important interests in safeguarding health, in maintaining medical standards, and in protecting potential life. At some point in pregnancy, these respective interests become sufficiently compelling to sustain regulation of the factors that govern the abortion decision. The privacy right involved, therefore, cannot be said to be absolute. In fact, it is not clear to us that the claim asserted by some amici that one has an unlimited right to do with one's body as one pleases bears a close relationship to the right of privacy previously articulated in the Court's decisions. The Court has refused to recognize an unlimited right of this kind in the past."
6-word summary: abortion is legal; created specific regulations
Result: 7:2, favor Roe
Related Constitutional issue/amendment: 9th amendment (right to privacy); 10th amendment (police powers); 14th amendment (due process)
Civil Rights or Civil Liberties: Liberties
Significance/Precedent: Abortion was officially made legal (with some regulations) and a fundamental right, so it had to be applied to the states through selective incorporation. The regulations were that women could choose to have an abortion during the first two trimesters, but states could regulate abortions in the second trimester and restrict abortions in the third trimester, but had to allow abortions that save the life or preserve the health of the mother.
Quote from majority opinion: "The Court's decisions recognizing a right of privacy also acknowledge that some state regulation in areas protected by that right is appropriate. As noted above, a State may properly assert important interests in safeguarding health, in maintaining medical standards, and in protecting potential life. At some point in pregnancy, these respective interests become sufficiently compelling to sustain regulation of the factors that govern the abortion decision. The privacy right involved, therefore, cannot be said to be absolute. In fact, it is not clear to us that the claim asserted by some amici that one has an unlimited right to do with one's body as one pleases bears a close relationship to the right of privacy previously articulated in the Court's decisions. The Court has refused to recognize an unlimited right of this kind in the past."
6-word summary: abortion is legal; created specific regulations