|
On January 22, 1973, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in Roe v. Wade that a woman's fundamental right to privacy is "broad enough to encompass a woman's decision whether or not to terminate her pregnancy,"1 thus placing women's reproductive choices alongside other fundamental rights deserving of the highest degree of constitutional protection. This 7-2 decision rendered existing state laws, two-thirds of which outlawed abortion except to save a woman's life, unconstitutional and dramatically improved women's lives.
Since that decision, Roe v. Wade has been under intense assault, and subsequent Supreme Court rulings have weakened its protection of a woman's right to privacy. Over the last 30 years, state legislatures have enacted a series of laws decreasing women's access to abortion, particularly for low-income and young women.
In Texas, the number of abortion providers decreased by 19% between 1992 and 2005, and 93% of Texas counties do not have an abortion provider.2 Texas women who want an abortion must wait 24 hours before the procedure and be offered biased information about its risks.3 Those under the age of 18 must obtain the consent of a parent or legal guardian.4 Medicaid in Texas will not pay for the procedure unless the pregnancy was the result of rape or incest or if the woman's life (but not her health) is in danger.5
Roe v. Wade
- For almost a century before Roe, the U.S. Supreme Court had decided a series of cases recognizing a constitutionally protected right to privacy that protects intimate and personal decisions from governmental interference.
- Two such cases were Griswold v. Connecticut in 1965 and Eisenstadt v. Baird in 1972. In these the Court held that laws criminalizing the use of contraception violated the constitutional right to privacy, stating that people had the right to "be free from unwarranted governmental intrusion into matters so fundamentally affecting a person as the decision whether to bear or beget a child."6
- In its ruling in Roe v. Wade, the Court held that the right to privacy encompasses the right to choose whether to end a pregnancy. It recognized that without a constitutional right to privacy that includes this right to choose, the government could override not only a woman's decision to terminate her pregnancy but also her choice to carry a pregnancy to term.
- However, the Court held that the right to privacy was not absolute and that a woman could only choose an abortion until the point of fetal viability (approximately 22-24 weeks). After that point, the state had a "compelling interest" in protecting fetal life and could ban abortions not necessary to preserve a woman's life or health.
Roe v. Wade Improved Women's Health
- The fact that abortion was mostly illegal until 1973 did not stop women from having the procedure. In the 1950s and 60s, for example, the estimated number of illegal abortions each year in the U.S. range from 200,000 to 1.2 million.7
- Even before the ruling in Roe v. Wade, medical, public health, religious, and women's organizations were organizing to legalize abortion, because illegal abortions contributed to high rates of maternal death and pregnancy-related complications:
- In 1965—when abortion was illegal in all states (except for life endangerment)—illegal abortions accounted for almost 17% of all deaths due to pregnancy and childbirth in the U.S. that year.8
- In 1967—after abortion was liberalized in California—the number of admissions for infection resulting from illegal abortions at Los Angeles County Medical Center fell by almost 75%.9
- In 1969—one year before New York State legalized abortion—complications from abortion accounted for 23% of all pregnancy-related admission to municipal hospitals in New York City.10
- Illegal abortions were difficult to obtain, and therefore, less than 40% were performed at or before the eighth week of pregnancy.11
- Today, approximately 1.3 million legal abortions are performed each year in the U.S., and the death rate from legal abortion is .6/100,000 procedures—11 times safer than childbirth.12
- 59% of all legal abortions in the U.S. are performed before the ninth week of pregnancy— 89% within the first 12 weeks (first trimester)—less than 2% after the twentieth week.13
The Future of Roe v. Wade
- Since the Supreme Court's ruling in 1973, opponents of a woman's right to choose have worked diligently to outlaw or restrict access to abortion. Over time, the fundamental right to obtain an abortion outlined in Roe has been weakened.
- In 1980, the Court ruled in Harris v. McRae that the denial of Medicaid funding for an abortion did not interfere with a woman's right to choose and that the state could promote fetal life throughout pregnancy by denying funding. This has deprived many poor women of their right to choose.
- In 1983, the Court upheld parental consent requirements in Planned Parenthood of Kansas City, Missouri v. Ashcroft. This opened the door for laws requiring parental consent or notification before a minor has an abortion. Today, 34 states have such laws in effect.14
- In 1992 in Planned Parenthood of Southeastern Pennsylvania v. Casey, the Court adopted a less protective constitutional standard and allowed the states to restrict access to abortion before fetal viability so long as the restrictions did not "unduly burden" women. This allowed states to pass laws making harder for all women to obtain an abortion.
1. Roe v. Wade, 410 U.S. 113 (1973).
2. Who Decides? The Status of Women's Reproductive Rights in the United States (2006). NARAL Pro-Choice America Foundation.
3. Texas Health and Safety Code, Chapter 171, Subchapter B (Enacted 2003).
4. Texas Occupations Code Chapter 164.052 (Enacted 2005).
5. Bell v. Low-Income Women of Tex., 95 S.W.3d 253 (Tex. 2002)
6. Eisenstadt v. Baird, 405 U.S. 438 (1972).
7. Tietze, Christopher & Stanley K. Henshaw (1986). Induced Abortion: A World Review, 1986. New York: The Alan Guttmacher Institute.
8. NCHS—National Center for Health Statistics (1967). Vital Statistics of the United States, 1965: Vol. 11—Mortality, Part A. Washington, DC: U.S. Government Printing Office (GPO).
9. Seward, Paul N., et al (1973). "The Effect of legal Abortion on the Rate of Septic Abortion at a Large County Hospital." American Journal of Obstetrics and Gynecology, 115(335), 353-338.
10. Institute of Medicine (1975). Legalized Abortion and the Public Health. Washington, DC: National Academy of Sciences.
11. Planned Parenthood Federation of America (2004). Fact Sheet: Medical and Social Health Benefits Since Abortion was Made Legal in the U.S.
12. Alan Guttmacher Institute (2005). Facts in Brief: Induced Abortion in the United States.
13. Ibid.
14. Alan Guttmacher Institute (2006). State Policies in Brief: Parental Involvement in Minor's Abortion.
|
