Roe v. Wade: An Ethical and Medical Case

In the early nineteenth century, abortion law had taken a backseat in the mainstream public's eye, and therefore, in the legal system's priorities as well. With abortion only legal in three states - Colorado, California, and Georgia - and those states having such stringent regulations on these laws that many women could not even obtain legal abortions, many women turned to illegal abortions as their answer. This resulted in a paltry number of legal abortions being performed, approximately eight to ten thousand annually, compared to the estimated number of illegal ones, which was a million to a million and half annually. These illegal abortions more often than not, resulted in serious injury and even death for these women.

In 1970, two women, Linda Coffee and Sarah Weddington, decided they were going to challenge the contemporary way of thinking in the United States by helping Norma L. McCorvey (under the name Jane Roe to help protect anonymity) file suit against the state of Texas to have a legal abortion. The U.S. District Court in Texas ruled in favor of McCorvey in the case of Roe v Wade, though they refused to grant her an injunction against the abortion laws of the time. This meant that while they agreed and sided with McCorvey and her lawyers, they still denied her the right to a legal abortion in the state of Texas.

The case eventually ended up in front of the United States Supreme Court. Two Supreme Court Justices joined too late to hear the initial arguments, so on October 11, 1972, re-arguments were made. On January 22, 1973, the Supreme Court issued its ruling. In a 7-2 decision, the Court ruled in favor of McCorvey, deeming abortion a fundamental right granted to women under the United States Constitution. In the opinion of the Roe Court, written by Justice Harry Blackum, he stated that the "right of privacy, whether it be founded in the Fourteenth Amendment's concept of personal liberty and restrictions upon state action, as we feel it is, or, as the District Court determined, in the Ninth Amendment's reservation of rights to the people, is broad enough to encompass a woman's decision whether or not to terminate her pregnancy."

Though Roe v Wade was heard by the U.S. Supreme Court, and a ruling in favor of the plaintiff was given, the controversy and arguments did not end there. Many cases since Roe v Wade have helped alter the abortion laws in this country, and many more are still being brought before courts across the land. A common argument among pro-lifers in the Roe case substantiates around the fact that all nine Supreme Court Justices failed to use fertilization as the starting point of life, but instead concluded that the a viable point of a fetus is when it can "live outside the mother's womb, albeit with artificial aid. Viability is usually placed at about seven months (28 weeks) but may occur earlier, even at 24 weeks."

Roe advocates feel the decision was a win for women's rights, privacy, and personal freedom in America. Some have even gone so far as to argue that denying a woman the right to an abortion is forced servitude for women. Even though a woman consents to acts that may lead to her pregnancy, the states forcing her to conceive is forcing her into unwanted motherhood. Andrew Koppelman used the Thirteenth Amendment to help argue this point in his article Forced Labor: A Thirteenth Amendment Defense of Abortion. This argument fuels the Roe ruling opponents since it compares motherhood to slavery and does not truly engage the fact that the government does not force women to engage in unprotected sex.

Public polls are showing that the country is still split on opinion concerning the Roe v Wade decision, even forty years later. According to Harris Interactive, 56% of people agreed with the court's ruling, which may be the highest rating in favor of the decision since 1988, but far from an overwhelming majority. This narrow margin will ensure that Roe v Wade, and abortion as a whole, will remain a heated debate in the medical community, as well as ethics courses and debates across the country.