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The case was the first to establish that a woman, rather than her physician, might be the party injured by a state's criminalization of abortion. Moreover, the decision was in large measure based on an implied "right to privacy" in the U.S. Constitution, which the majority held was violated by state laws restricting a woman's right to abort a fetus prior to its viability outside her womb. The Supr…
The "Jane Roe" whose name would be attached to this national divide was actually 21-year-old Norma McCorvey. McCorvey's marriage had ended, and her daughter, age 5, was being reared by McCorvey's mother and stepfather. In the summer of 1969, McCorvey was working as a ticket seller for a traveling carnival; by early autumn she had lost her job and had become pregnant. McCorvey wanted to end her pre…
Coffee and Weddington decided to attack the constitutionality of the Texas abortion law on the grounds that it violated the Fourteenth and Ninth Amendments to the U.S. Constitution. The Due Process Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment guaranteed equal protection under the law to all citizens and, in particular, required that laws be clearly written. Physicians accused of performing illegal abortions…
The Three-Judge Court Act of 1910 had created courts in which a panel of three judges drawn from a single appellate circuit might resolve interstate commerce disputes between the federal and state governments. Another act, passed in 1937, required that such a panel hear any case questioning the constitutionality of a state law. On 23 May 1970, Coffee, Weddington, Tolles, and Floyd appeared in the …
The Fifth Circuit Court had issued declarative relief, that is, it had declared the challenged law unconstitutional. It had not, however, issued injunctive relief, which would have been an order for Texas to end its enforcement of that law. For this reason, Weddington and Coffee were entitled to appeal directly to the U.S. Supreme Court, which agreed to hear their case. Forty-two amici curiae, or …
On 22 January 1973, Justice Blackmun read his majority opinion to a room filled with reporters. Reviewing the history of abortion in the United States, he pointed out that "The restrictive criminal abortion laws in effect in a majority of states today . . . are not of ancient or even common law origin." Instead, he said they seemed to have been passed to protect women from a procedure that was, in…
Every state was affected. New York, which had previously permitted abortion until the twenty-fourth week of pregnancy, had to extend that period by several weeks, and the laws of Alaska, Hawaii, and Washington required similar amendments. Fifteen states needed a complete overhaul of their abortion laws, while 31 states--including Texas--had strict anti-abortion laws which became immediately and en…
Many of the Supreme Court's most liberal members have retired since Roe v. Wade was decided in 1973, and their conservative successors have indicated a willingness to re-examine the decision and its implications. On 30 June 1980, in Harris v. McRae, the High Court ruled that neither the federal nor local government was obligated to pay for abortions for women on welfare, even if their abortions we…
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