Impact & Aftermath of Roe v. Wade

This report examines the effect of the decision of the Supreme Court in Roe v. Wade, 410 U.S. 113 (1973) on the law of abortion in the United States and discusses the aftermath of that decision and subsequent Supreme Court and other decisions since 1973.

Roe v. Wade constitutionalized at the federal level the debate over the legality of abortion and thereby overrode all but one state statutes which criminalized or otherwise regulated abortion. In the decade after that decision, efforts by pro-life forces to reverse or limit its impact largely failed, but pro-life forces were able to establish the constitutionality of efforts by Congress and state legislatures to limit public funding for abortions. Since 1988, due to changes in the composition of the Supreme Court and the growth of pro-life sentiment, substantial inroads have been achieved in limiting or partially reversing the impact and scope of Roe v. Wade. Today, pro-choice and pro-life forces have arrived at an unstable standstill over whether abortion is legal and under what circumstances. Restrictive state abortion laws and narrow Supreme Court interpretations of Roe v. Wade and its progeny have not succeeded in re-criminalizing abortion but they have made it more difficult for women, especially unemancipated (unmarried) minors to have abortions, at least at the state's expense.

Roe v. Wade and Its Initial Impact (1973-1982)

Situation before Roe v. Wade. By the time Roe v. Wad

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egnancy and (iii) prohibited the use of saline amniocentesis as a method of abortion. By a five to four vote, the Court struck down a requirement that an unmarried minor woman obtain the written consent of one parent before obtaining an abortion. Justice Blackmun said at 74 that "the state does not have the constitutional authority to given a third party an absolute, and possibly arbitrary, veto over the decision or the physician and his patient to terminate the patient's pregnancy, regardless of the reason for withholding consent;" Colautti v. Franklin 439 U.S. 379 (1979) which invalidated a Pennsylvania statute that required a physician to use the method and 'degree of care' most likely to preserve the life and health of the fetus if the physician determined it to be viable; Bellotti v. Baird (II) 443 U.S. 622 (1979) which invalidated a Massachusetts law that required a minor to obtain parental consent before an abortion; City of Akron v. Akron Center for Reproductive Health 462 U.S. 416 (1983) which struck down a city ordinance which (i) required physicians to given their patients anti-abortion data; (ii) required a 24 hour waiting period; (iii) mandated that all abortions after the first trimester be performed in a hosp
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Approximate Word count = 5157
Approximate Pages = 21 (250 words per page)

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