Abortion Since Row V Wade Essay Research

Abortion Since Row V. Wade Essay, Research Paper

Abortion Since Row v. Wade

Abortion has quickly become the most powerful social issue in the United States since slavery . Abortion is a topic that is very controversial because it deals with the potential life of a human being. There have been many Supreme Court cases dealing with the abortion controversy, including the landmark 1973 decision in Roe v. Wade that protected a woman s constitutional right to have an abortion. This case was the turning point for women, and almost all of the Supreme Court cases that would follow would reaffirm the decision reached in Row v. Wade.

In the year 1969, a woman named Norma McCorvy became pregnant after allegedly being raped. Norma, who would later adopt the pseudonym, “Jane Row” , wished to end her pregnancy by abortion; however, the Texas law outlawed abortions except for the instance when it would save the mother s life. In 1970, McCorvy filed a class action suit in the Federal District Court in Dallas. The district court ruled that the Texas law was unconstitutionally vague . The law infringed the woman s right to choose whether or not to have a child. Justice Blackmun drafted a new set of guidelines which clearly detailed when an abortion would be legal. 1) For the first trimester, the decision to have an abortion is held totally up to the woman and her doctor. 2) During the second trimester, the state may regulate the abortion, depending on the doctor s decision. 3) In the third trimester, the state may forbid the abortion in the interest of protecting potential life.

The rulings in the case Roe v. Wade immediately affected abortion laws in all fifty states . The case had a huge impact on the abortion controversy in the United States. Aside from giving women new rights, it opened the doors for more change in legislation. Roe v. Wade was not the end of the abortion law battle.

In 1976, two lawyers and two members of Planned Parenthood of central Missouri filed a suit against a Missouri law that placed certain restrictions on abortions. The laws challenged were as follows: 1) Parental consent on a minors abortion. 2) Husband s consent on a married woman s abortion. 3) The woman s written informed consent. 4) No second trimester abortions be done by saline amniocentesis. 5) The abortion providers must do certain record keeping and reporting . This case, Planned Parenthood v. Danforth, occurred because many people thought that these laws denied the woman s absolute right to have an abortion. Having third party consent should not be required for a woman to have an abortion.

In the final ruling, it was decided that parental and spousal consent were unconstitutional because it gave third parties a right to veto a woman s choice to have an abortion. The record keeping and the woman s certification were upheld, as was the use of saline amniocentesis, which was supposedly the safest method available . In this case, the court held firm to its stand in Roe v. Wade, that a woman s decision to have an abortion was secured under the Constitution.

In 1979, a Massachusetts law requiring third party consent was challenged in the case Bellotti v. Baird. The law required unmarried minors to receive parental consent before receiving an abortion. If the parent refused, then the minor could then seek alternative consent from a state judge for “good cause shown” .

In the judge s decisions, the law was found to be unconstitutional. All minors must be given permission to have an abortion, regardless of anyone s view if it s in her best interest . Like the case of Panned Parenthood v. Danforth, the law stood firmly on the ground that no third party could veto a minor s right to end her pregnancy.

The case Colautti v. Franklin dealt with a slightly different aspect of the abortion controversy. In most of the abortion cases so far, the people challenging the laws have been woman having abortions. Franklin, however, was a doctor during the time who felt that the Pennsylvania Abortion Control Act put him in an unfair position. The law required that a doctor performing an abortion choose the procedure most likely to save the life of a fetus if it might be viable. The law stated that any doctor who did not attempt to save a viable fetus could be subject to criminal charges .

On January 9th, 1979, the Supreme Court voted six to three to invalidate the Pennsylvania law . The majority found that the law s requirement to determine whether a fetus is viable to be unconstitutional. It was decided that the word “viable” is far too vague to begin with .

In 1980, the Hyde Amendment was challenged in the case Harris v. McRae. This law stated that no Medicaid funds would be granted to perform an abortion unless the woman s life was in danger. The court denied the challenge, standing firmly on the belief that neither the federal nor the state government had any obligation to provide funding for an abortion, whether the abortion was elective or medically necessary . Justice Potter Stewart said, “The key distinction between abortion and other medical procedures is that abortion is the purposeful termination of a potential human life.”

With the new enactment of the Hyde Amendment, the number of federally funded abortions dropped from 300,000 to under 2,500 per year . Since this case, there have been relatively few challenges to re