Roe v. Wade

Abortion is a controversial issue in America. Those who are pro-abortion, or "pro-choice," fervently support a woman's right to control her body. Their stance is that, if a woman becomes pregnant, it is her decision—and her decision alone—to abort or not to abort a pregnancy. Those who are against abortion, or "pro-life," just as avidly believe that life begins at conception, rather than at birth, and that the law must protect the unborn. Thus "pro-life" supporters believe that the right of the fetus is more important the right of the mother; for those people, abortion is a crime, and, for many, a crime just as horrible as cold-blooded murder. In 1973, the U.S. Supreme Court handed down the Roe v. Wade decision, which legalized abortion—and formalized the battle lines between "pro-life" and "pro-choice" forces.

The major player in Roe v. Wade was Norma McCorvey (1947–), or "Jane Roe" as she was known in the case. McCorvey was a poor pregnant Texas woman who was rejected in her attempts to obtain an abortion; eventually, she gave birth and put the baby up for adoption. Meanwhile, two young lawyers who wished to challenge the state's restrictive abortion law took up her case, which eventually was argued before the Supreme Court. The Court ruled that only a pregnant woman and her doctor should be empowered to make the decision to end a pregnancy, so long as it is within three months of conception. After that time period, each state had the right to limit abortions. The decision was based on the concept of the right to privacy, and the belief that, in America, individuals should be able to make the decisions that affect their lives.

Before Roe v. Wade, only four states and Washington, D.C., allowed access to abortion. Otherwise, the procedure was illegal. A woman seeking a legal abortion had to travel to one of the four states or to Washington, D.C., or had to leave the country, thus preventing those with meager financial resources from obtaining abortions. A woman could have one performed illegally, by a back-alley abortionist, often in unsafe (and, occasionally, life-threatening) conditions.

The pro-abortion tide was set in motion less than two decades earlier, when a German measles epidemic and the use of a tranquilizer called Thalidomide resulted in a rash of infants born with severe birth defects. Then, beginning in the early 1970s, the burgeoning women's movement led to an increased awareness of women's reproductive rights. It was this climate that resulted in the Roe v. Wade decision. The abortion topic has been a political battleground ever since. A political candidate's view on abortion has been a litmus test (a test decided by one issue or factor) for whether he or she is acceptable to many voters.

Despite the politically conservative climate of the 1980s, which emerged with the election to the U.S. presidency of Ronald Reagan (1911–), the Court reaffirmed its position on Roe v. Wade. Meanwhile, a few violent anti-abortion activists began attacking abortion clinics and even murdering the doctors who worked there. The "pro-choice" versus "pro-life" battle rages to this day and remains as heated and as contentious as ever.

—Rob Edelman

For More Information

Craig, Barbara Hinkson, and David M. O'Brien. Abortion and AmericanPolitics. Chatham, NJ: Chatham House Publishers, 1993.

Faux, Marian. Roe v. Wade: The Untold Story of the Landmark SupremeCourt Decision That Made Abortion Legal. New York: New American Library, 1988.

Reagan, Leslie J. When Abortion Was Illegal: Women, Medicine, and Law in the United States, 1867–1973. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1997.