Roe V. Wade

In the third and final trimester of the pregnancy, the state's "compelling interest" in protecting the life of the fetus was seen as great enough to warrant severe restrictions on abortion. Even then, Justice Harry Blackmun, speaking for the majority of the Court, held that states must permit abortion if necessary to preserve the life of the woman (Hall, 1992). In the course of this analysis, Justice Blackmun stated that:

because of uncertainty about the medical and moral status

of the fetus, the states could not adopt a particular

theory of when life begins - they could not decide, for

example, that because life begins at conception fetuses

have the same rights as newborn infants (Hall, 1992, p.

Following the decision in Roe, opponent

. . .
oman. Justice Sandra Day O'Connor agreed that the medical provision was constitutional and stated that there was roughly a four-week margin of error in determining gestational age. Thus, when a physician believes a fetus to be 20 weeks old, it was felt that it could be 24 weeks old - placing the pregnancy in its third trimester during which under Roe, states can regulate third trimester abortions to protect fetuses if they are viable (Hall, 1992; Linton 2002). In an important case, the Supreme Court made what is perhaps its strongest statement on fetal rights in 2000. The case was Stenberg v Carhart. The issue addressed by the Court was a Nebraska statute that banned so-called partial birth abortions. The Court struck down the statute and affirmed the right of a woman to choose (Abortion on trial, again, 2000). Carhart argued that under the terms of Roe, the abortion of a fetus in the second trimester was regarded as constitutional. Therefore, a late term abortion falling within the first 24 weeks of pregnancy should not be banned by state law. The Court agreed. In commenting on the issue in Stenberg, President Bill Clinton (2000) stated that the Court had affirmed a woman's right to choose and included within her r
. . .

Some common words found in the essay are:
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Approximate Word count = 3565
Approximate Pages = 14 (250 words per page)

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