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By Sadia Choudhury
Before Roe vs. Wade became a landmark legal decision in 1973, American women were not guaranteed the right to have an abortion without excessive government restrictions, and approximately 200 pregnant women and girls died attempting to terminate unwanted pregnancies per year. In 2021, The Supreme Court challenged the recent Texas statute that made performing abortions unlawful unless a woman’s life was in jeopardy. Shortly thereafter, nearly all Republican states supported Texas and made it illegal to get an abortion. Now in this circumstance, the nation in the late 1960s was already beginning to reform the criminal abortion laws in almost every state. This reform movement over time had a profound impact on women’s rights and freedom. Now in 2021, the Supreme Court is deciding whether or not to revoke the law that allows women to choose to have an abortion. While reading this, you will see the historical timeline of how Roe vs. Wade came to be, and perhaps better understand the problemS besetting Roe vs.Wade in 2021.
Timeline:
1971:
The first case was filed by Norma McCorvey but in the court documents, she was known as Jane Roe. Her lawyers were Sarah Weddington and Linda Coffee. The U.S Supreme Court agreed to listen to the case filed by Roe against Wade (Henry Wade), who was a district attorney of Dallas County and was the person who invoked banning abortions except if a woman’s life was at stake.
December 13, 1971:
It was the first hearing in the U.S Supreme Court
October 11, 1972:
The case was again discussed or heard in the U.S Supreme Court
January 22, 1973:
The supreme court challenged the Texas statute that made performing abortions unlawful unless a women’s lives were in jeopardy. The Supreme Court sided with Jane Roe by acknowledging constitutional privacy rights. The decision came to be 7-2, and the U.S Supreme Court declared the validity of a women’s right to have an abortion. The judges that were involved in this decision-making were, Harry Blackmun (for The Court) Warren Burger, William Douglas, William Brennan, Potter Stewart, Thurgood Marshall, and Lewis Powell while Bryon White and William Rehnquist voted against the right to an abortion. This ruling was made by acknowledging the 14th amendment that includes “equal protection under the laws.” This decision also ruled the right to an abortion during the nine months of pregnancy. Additionally, this settlement affected 46 states.
June 17, 2003:
McCorvey, also known as Jane Roe, became a “born again” Christan and filed a motion with the U.S District Court in Dallas to have the case upended and requested the judge to acknowledge the new evidence that having an abortion hurts women. With the new evidence, there were also a thousand affidavits (legal declarations) from women saying, that they regret having an abortion.
September 14, 2004:
The panel of the 5th U.S Circuit Court of Appeals in New Orleans, Louisiana, revoked McCorvey’s claim to have the law overturned.
What is happening today with Roe vs. Wade?
On December 1st, 2021, the U.S Supreme Court started an argument on whether to reverse the court’s decision for Roe vs. Wade after it was nearly a half-century old. In Mississippi, their law bans abortion after fifteen weeks, then again, in a year would ban it after six weeks. Now the state is requesting the Supreme Court to overturn all of its prior abortion verdicts and allow the abortion question to go back to the states. The Supreme Court is now more conservative than it was in 1971, because it now has six conservative justices on the Court who all have records of opposing abortion rights. This potentially only makes the opposing side much stronger. For decades, conservatives have argued that the right to have an abortion was not found in the constitution. However the counter-argument made by liberals holds that if the Supreme Court agrees to eliminate the right to have an abortion, it will amount to immoral political activism. While legal arguments are researched and debated, there is no certainty as to how each justice will ultimately rule. Yet as of December 2021, a decision in this case, will be expected in late June of 2022.
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