Roe Vs. Wade

Roe vs. Wade research papers show that it was perhaps the most prolific and groundbreaking event involving the abortion issue. The pro-life verses pro-choice debate was decided in the Supreme Court case of Roe vs. Wade in 1973. The case involved a Texas woman's desire to have an abortion, however Texas law limited abortions to only those cases that involved the risk of a pregnant woman's life. Arguments surrounding the case had been heard for two years prior to the Supreme Court's decision and included the most significant question of whether or not the Fourteenth Amendment to the Constitution included a woman's right to privacy concerning abortion, thereby voiding the Texas statute.

The Supreme Court determined by a majority vote that the right to an abortion did in fact fall under the protection of the Fourteenth Amendment. This decision gave the American woman the right to an abortion throughout the entirety of her pregnancy and affected changes in the abortion laws of 46 states in regulating abortions in the second and third trimesters of pregnancy. (Supreme Court) That is, in the decision of Roe vs. Wade, constitutional rights may be regulated and, in effect, the decision held that "a woman's claim to make her own medical choices is strong in the first trimester of pregnancy, moderate in the second, and weak in the third, at which point the state acquires a 'compelling' interest in the protection of new life".