Roe V. Wade Case Analysis

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On January 22, 1973, the Supreme Court of the United States ruled that the right to privacy under the Due Process Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment applied to a woman's decision to have an abortion. The 7-2 Roe v. Wade decision was one of the most controversial rulings ever made by the Supreme Court and the morality and legality of abortion are issues that continue to be hotly debated in American politics. Under common law, abortion was legal in the United States leading up to the nineteenth century. In 1821, Connecticut passed the first law to restrict abortion in the United States. The law prohibited the use of a toxic substance to cause a miscarriage after "quickening," or when a woman first feels the fetus move. Quickening usually occurs four or five months into the pregnancy. In 1873, Anthony Comstock, head …show more content…

The Court’s decision affected the laws of 46 states. From 1975 through today, Americans have almost continually believed that abortion should be legal "only under certain circumstances." In the decade following the Roe v. Wade decision, the number of Americans holding extreme positions (one extreme position held that abortion should be legal in all cases and the other believed it should be completely banned) was around the 20% level for both ends of the spectrum. In the 1980s, the general attitude shifted toward the pro-choice position, and by 1990, the liberal extreme exceeded the conservative extreme two-to-one. However, in 1996, the number of people holding the extreme pro-choice position dropped and more people took the middle position (that abortion should be legal under certain circumstances). Currently, Gallup finds that 26% of Americans say abortion should be legal in all cases, 56% say it should be legal in certain cases, and 17% say it should be illegal in all cases.

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