Roe V. Wade Summary

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The lawsuit that created the current abortion laws and first recognized abortion as a constitutional right is under Roe v. Wade. The case began on March of 1970 in Texas when Jane Roe an unmarried pregnant woman challenged the state of Texas’s anti-abortion law, by stating that the laws are vague and did not follow the ninth and fourteenth amendments of the Constitution. At the time of her case she was pregnant and the final decision from the case was not made until after her baby was born and adopted by another individual. Her suit was fought against Henry Wade who enforced the state’s abortion laws. Roe personally wanted an abortion and believed the current laws at the time regarding abortions were to strict. Justice Harry Blackmun wrote …show more content…
Wade the issue on potential life developed an issue. The Supreme Court was interested in protecting the future life of the fetus and the harm that an abortion can cause for the mom and the baby. To solve this problem, the court developed a framework for the woman’s right to abortion and the state’s right to protect the potential life. While potential life could be referred to as a baby, the supreme court never indicated any sort of human since it could cause potential controversy. The framework developed stated that during the first trimester of pregnancy, a women’s privacy right is the strongest and the state cannot regulate abortion at the time for any reason. This means that the pregnant women can get an abortion at any time without interference of the state. While this was solely based on the women’s decision the second trimester brought a new concern.
During the second trimester, Blackman made it clear that the state can regulate or prohibit abortion. The idea is to promote the potential life of the fetus since it has developed further into becoming a human. The exception to this situation is if the abortion is necessary to save the women’s life or protect her health. This was the last piece of the new right that was established for abortions from the Roe v. Wade case. From this supreme court case, other states viewed the importance of changing the law and the certain rights that support women if they wish to get an