roe v wade presentation

C O U R T C A S E

roe v. wade

roe v. wade

An Analysis of the History, Signficance, Impact, and Ruling of Roe V. Wade

START

background

R O E V. W A D Ehistory

Where it all startedWade & Roe

"Jane Roe" V. Henry Wade

Background

• In 1969, 21-year-old Norma McCorvey became pregnant. It was her third pregnancy; however due to financial struggles and substance abuse, she gave them up for adoption. This time, she wanted an abortion. But in Texas, abortion was deemed illegal unless the mother's life was at stake.

• McCorvey couldn't afford to leave the state or obtain a secret abortion from a reliable physician. But she heard about Attorney Sarah Weddington and Linda Coffee who were looking to file a test case with a potential plaintiff like her—someone whose age and social class would illustrate the unfairness of abortion laws.
• She agreed to participate in the case against Texas District Attorney, Henry Wade, under the pseudonym , "Jane Roe"

+ info

The Arguement

Her legal team sued Henry Wade, district attorney of the county in which “Jane Roe” lived, arguing that Texas’ law violated women’s constitutional right to privacy—their freedom to live without undue governmental intrusion in their personal lives.They claimed that banning abortion was illegal due to amendments protecting privacy and asserted that women's access to abortion clinics and physicians are a necessity. Their main argument focused heavily on privacy clauses.

TIMELINE

R O E V. W A D Etimeline

The Growth of Roe V Wade

Roe V. Wade Timeline

TraciNg back

Jane Roe becomes pregnant

Late 1969

She wanted to terminate her 3rd pregancy, but couldn't due to Texan Law

Roe files lawsuit against Wade

May 22, 1970

Her legal team claimed that banning abortion is unconstitutional. A three-judge panel on the U.S. District Court ruled in her favor.

Supreme Court Agrees to hearing

1971

The supreme court decided to review her case.

SC grants legalized abortion

January 22, 1973

issued a 7-2 decision in favor of Roe holding that women have a constitutional right to an abortion under the 14th Amendment.

Hyde Ammendment Passes

September 30, 1976

prohibiting government funds from being spent on abortion services except for rape, incest or life-threatening situations.

Southeastern Pa. v. Casey

1992

A case that challenged the legal precedent of Roe V Wade in attempt to place abortion restrictions on a state-level

Roe filed motion for overturn

2003-2004

she claimed that abortion hurts women. The justices dismissed this motion in the Court of Appeals.

Trump elected, Conserv. Maj.

November 8, 2016

appointed three conservative judges to the court - Neil Gorsuch, Brett Kavanaugh and Amy Coney Barrett — solidifying a conservative majority.

Whole Woman's Health v. Hellerstedt

June 27, 2016

Courts defended abortion rights by preventing the shutdown of abortion clinics in Texas because of an unnecessary state law.

Overturn Leaked

May 2, 2022

Report leaked Supreme Court draft opinion indicating the Court would overturn Roe v. Wade. The news set off protests and rallies across the country.

Overturn made Official

June 24, 2022

A case invonvling MS Abortion laws, upheld the ban on abortion and overrides the legal precedent of Roe V. Wade. Consequently, Roe V Wade was overturned.

COURT

R O E V. W A D Ethe court case

What arguments were made regarding Roe V Wade?

Arguments & Rights

ARGUMENTS

WADE

ROE

• Wade stood as a figure-head for pro-life policies against abortion.
• With this in mind, the lawsuit was less about prosecuting Wade and more about challenging the longstanding laws about Women's right to abortions.
• Wade, personally, did not aggressively prosecute illegal abortions and said little about them.

• In her lawsuit, Roe alleged that the state laws were unconstitutionally vague and abridged her right of personal privacy, protected by the First, Fourth, Fifth, Ninth, and Fourteenth Amendments.
• Attorney Coffee and Weddington prepared an oral argument in which they were asked "If a fetus legally becomes person at birth?", they agreed.

DECISION

R O E V. W A D Ethe decision

On what grounds, did the Supreme court agree on regarding Roe V Wade?

In Roe v. Wade, the Supreme Court decided that the right to privacy implied in the 14th Amendment protected abortion as a fundamental right.

however, its not perfect as it only set the legal precedent for abortion without having any protections to establish its permanence.7:2 vote

LEGACY

R O E V. W A D Ecritiques & legacy

How long did the impact of Roe V Wade Last? To what extent did Roe protect other human rights? What were the criticisms of the logic used from a legal standpoint?

“A woman's right to choose an abortion is something central to a woman's life, to her dignity… And when government controls that decision for her, she's being treated as less than a full adult human being responsible for her own choices.”

Ruth Bader Ginsberg

LOREM IPSUM

• RBG was unsatisfied with the logic used in Roe V Wade.

• She thought that the better and more successful outcome would be to legalize abortion instead of just setting a legal precedent that could be undone by the SC. Thus making Roe's future unstable.

• Ginsburg said that she believed it would have been easier for the public to understand why the Constitution protected abortion rights if the matter had been framed as one of equal protection rather than privacy.

• She claims that the arguments they SHOULD have used to defend abortion fall under: Due process clause and the Equal protection clause

LEGACY

R O E V. W A D Eoverturned

The cases connected to Roe & the events that lead up to the decision in 2022.

Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization (2022)

Overturned

• The leaked decision on Dobbs V Jackson stood as a detrimental turning point for Roe V Wade's legacy as it completely unraveled 50 years of work done by Attorneys involved in a spectrum of cases regarding women's health and other rights (Griswald case, Same Sex Marriage, Contraceptives)

• This single decision not only impacted abortion rights, but also the right to contraceptives (Griswald), Same-sex rights, and Same-Sex marriages. These cases were all protected under the 14th amendment and used in court as a way to set legal precedent for future cases.

• If the SC overturned Roe V Wade --- a case that set the foundation for our present rights to marriage and access to contraceptives, will we loose those rights as well?

Supreme Court Reasoning

Overturned

• Justice Samuel Alito argued that the right to privacy is not specifically guaranteed anywhere in the Constitution. When unenumerated liberty rights exist — the right to raise your child as you see fit, for example — those rights must be “deeply rooted in the Nation’s history and tradition.” Thus concluding that abortion is not a right.

Supreme court opinion did not further explain how its logic would not also result in the overturning of a series of other cases that rely on the same logic as Roe. These include Lawrence v. Texas (2003), which invalidated laws criminalizing same-sex intimate sexual conduct, and Obergefell v. Hodges (2015), which recognized the right to marriage for same-sex couples.

Supreme Court Criticism

Overturned

• Alito’s insistence that rights be “deeply rooted” in U.S. history revealed a broad disregard of historically marginalized communities, including women, people of color, and gay Americans.

• The only rights “deeply rooted” in our history are the ones that served the white, heterosexual men who dominated government at the time of the founding. While Casey v Planned Parenthood, had begun to address the equality dimensions of abortion rights and how deeply ingrained it is in protecting rights for minority groups, Dobbs moved in the opposite direction, suggesting that non-majority groups must overcome special hurdles to have their rights recognized.

Sources

• https://www.brennancenter.org/our-work/research-reports/roe-v-wade-and-supreme-court-abortion-cases
• https://www.nationalgeographic.com/history/article/roe-v-wade-the-tumultuous-history-that-led-to-the-landmark-ruling#:~:text=The%20tumultuous%20history%20that%20led%20to%20the%20landmark%20Roe%20v,historic%20U.S.%20Supreme%20Court%20case.
• https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2021/09/jane-roe-v-wade-baby-norma-mccorvey/620009/
• https://supreme.findlaw.com/supreme-court-insights/roe-v--wade-case-summary--what-you-need-to-know.html
• https://supreme.justia.com/cases/federal/us/410/113/
• https://www.google.com/search?q=set+the+legal+precedent&rlz=1C1ONGR_enUS935US935&oq=set+the+legal+precedent+&aqs=chrome..69i57j0i22i30j0i390l2.7431j0j7&sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8