What is the law?
Abortion in the US has been legal for nearly the last 50 years. The Roe vs Wade trial was the ruling that legalized abortion in all 50 states.
May 24, 2022
In 1973, the United States Supreme Court ruled that women have the Constitutional right to choose abortion in the Texas trial, Roe vs Wade.
In the trial, “”a pregnant single woman (Roe) brought a class action challenging the constitutionality of the Texas criminal abortion laws, which proscribe procuring or attempting an abortion except on medical advice for the purpose of saving the mother’s life,”” according to Justia.
Roe launched federal action against Henry Wade, the district attorney of Dallas County over the Texas ban on abortion unless to save the mother’s life. She used the 14th Amendment’s right to privacy that protected people’s right to make their own decisions without excessive government involvement and restriction, according to The Texas Tribune, as well as with her right to privacy protected by the First, Fourth, Fifth, and Ninth Amendments to argue that a woman’s right to choose is a Constitutional right.
“No State shall make or enforce any law which shall abridge the privileges or immunities of citizens of the United States; nor shall any State deprive any person of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law; nor deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws,” according to Section 1 of the 14th Amendment.
The court ruled that the Texas policy that made it illegal to recieve any abortion except to save the life of the mother, the Texas Statute, took away rights protected in the Constitution.
According to Privacy Library, “The District Court ruled that the right to choose whether to have children was protected by the Ninth and Fourteenth Amendment. Further, it ruled that the Texas Statute was void for being unconstitutionally vague and it constituted an overboard infringement of the Appellant’s Ninth Amendment rights.”
Before Roe vs Wade, it is estimated that between 20-25% of pregnancies ended in abortion according to npr.org, despite it being illegal in a majority of states.
Whether it be healthcare providers who were willing to perform them under the table, back-alley abortions, or self induced labor, women continued to receive abortions when it was not legal.
More importantly, in 1972 (the year before Roe vs Wade was ruled), the CDC banned illegal abortions causing 39 deaths while legal accounting for 24. The year Roe vs Wade was passed, the ratio reversed, with 19 deaths resulting from illegal abortions and 25 resulting from legal.
According to Guttmacher, 30 states banned abortion prior to Roe vs Wade.
Sixteen more put serious restrictions on abortions, only allowing for women to get abortions if they were pregnant from rape or incest, or the mother was at risk.
Only four allowed women to obtain abortions with minimal restrictions according to Guttmacher: Alaska, Hawaii, Washington, and New York.
Roe vs Wade legalized abortion in all 50 US states. Safe abortion access was ruled to be Constitutional right for all women.
Deaths from unsafe abortions before Roe vs Wade made up nearly one sixth of all pregnancy related deaths according to Planned Parenthood. Now, abortion has a safety record of nearly 99%.