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Freedom of choice and abortion
Abortion texas policy paper
Freedom of choice and abortion
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In the article “Abortion Restrictions In Texas Upheld By Appeals Court”, author Tasneem Nashrulla writes about the decision that the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals made on the House Bill 2 law that forces strict regulations on about all Texan abortion clinics. As well, listing the opponents of the law views on the danger it creates for millions of Texan women's. Abortion has always been a difficult issue because there are good arguments for both side. Taking into account both arguments, I am siding with the opponents of the law. I support the oppositions view because it does put a burden to Texan women who are seeking for medical assistance. Also, I would say that a woman has the right to make decisions regarding her pregnancy without Texan
In 1971, Norma McCorvey or Jane Roe, filled a case against the district attorney of Dallas County, Henry Wade, because he enforced a Texas law that prohibited abortion unless the abortion was needed medically, to save the mother’s life. Being a single, pregnant woman , Roe did not have the choice to have an abortion because the pregnancy was not endangering her life. Plus, Roe could not afford to travel to have the operation done safely. As a result, Linda Coffee and Sarah Weddington, two lawyers that graduated from the University of Texas Law School, claimed a lawsuit against the abortion laws in Texas because they violated Roe’s constitutional rights. Besides Roe’s two laywers, Hallford, a licensed physician, and a childless married couple known as the Does supported Roe’s case. The lawsuit against Wade was filed in a Texas Federal Court. The Texas Federal Court heard the case on December 13th, 1971 and again, on October 11th, 1972. After the examination of Weddington and Coffee’s argument against Jay Floyd’s, the lawyer for Wade during the first argument, and Robert C. Flower’s, the lawyer for Texas in the second argument, the court ruled in Roe’s favor by claiming that the law did violate the Constitution. Consequently, Wade appealed to the U.S. Supreme Court.
On January 22, 1973 the court issued its opinion with a 7-2 majority voting to strike down the Texas law. State laws outlawing abortion were set aside by the court, permitting abortions during the first three months of pregnancy and setting standards for regulations after that time to safeguard the women's health. The Supreme Court declared all but the least restrictive state statues unconstitutional. Noting that early abortions had become safer than childbirth and reasoning that the word "person" in the constitution "does not include the unborn." The Court
The facts of this case show that Roe, who at the time was a single woman, decided to challenge the State of Texas’s abortions laws. The law in that state stated that it was a felony to obtain or attempt an abortion except on medical advice to save the life of the mother (Roe v. Wade, 410 U.S. 113, 93 S. Ct. 705, 1973). At the time many illegal abortions were being performed in back alleys and in very unsanitary conditions. Therefore, some states began to loosen up on abortion restrictions, in which some women found it easy to travel to another state where the abortion laws were less restrictive and they could find a doctor was willing to endorse the medical requirement for an abortion. Unfortunately, less fortunate or poor women could seldom travel outside their own state to get the treatment, which started to raise questions of fairness. Also, many of the laws were vague; therefore many doctors really didn’t know whether they were committing ...
The Roe v. Wade case, brought before the U.S. Supreme Court in 1973, resulted in the Court’s determination that women have the constitutional right to have an abortion prior to when the fetus is viable, meaning when it can survive on its own outside the woman’s womb. Since this decision was handed down, Roe v. Wade has been the subject of a constant, divisive public and political debate regarding its moral, ethical and constitutional merits. The plaintiff, Norma McCorvey, who represented all women who are pregnant in the case, used the alias “Jane Roe.” The defendant was the county of Dallas, Texas. Roe’s claim charged that the abortion law in Texas was in violation of the constitutional rights of her and all other pregnant women. The Supreme
Roe and her attorneys asked the federal district court to declare that the Texas abortion statute violated her rights under the Constitution. They also asked the court t...
The topic of reproductive rights surrounding women in Texas has been a hot buttoned issue since the closing of many reproductive centers across the state. Recently damaging abortion restrictions were passed and therefore encroached on women’s reproductive rights even more by decreasing access to abortion care. Texas’ 84th Legislature both passed HB 3994 as a law and had it made effective by state governor Greg Abbott on July 8 of this year. This law complicates access to abortion services for mistreated and neglected minors and for those who do not possess specific identification cards in Texas.
In 1973, the supreme court passed a law called “Roe v. Wade case”. The law was passed to, “allow abortion on demand in the first trimester of a pregnancy.” (Robert H. lauer) The law has been under scrutiny by opponents of
The Texas statutes under attack here are typical of those that have been in effect in many States for approximately a century. The Georgia statutes, in contrast, have a modern cast and are a legislative product that, to an extent at least, obviously reflects the influences of recent attitudinal change, of advancing medical knowledge and techniques, and of new thinking about an old issue. We forthwith acknowledge our awareness of the sensitive and emotional nature of the abortion controversy, of the vigorous opposing views, even among physicians, and of the deep and seemingly absolute convictions that the subject inspires. One's philosophy, one's experiences, one's exposure to the raw edges of human existence, one's religious training, one's attitudes toward life and family and their values, and the moral standards one establishes and seeks to observe, are all likely to influence and to color one's thinking and conclusions about abortion.. The Texas statutes that concern us here are the Arts.
Abortion is a very controversial word. It is not something to be taken lightly whether you are against it or for it. When I say for it, I mean pro choice. Pro-choice to me means being able to decide what I want to do with my body, I am not for abortion. Of course I would rather see a fetus come to life but that is not choice. Whichever your feelings are, there are reasons why the new Texas laws hurt women and could be a gateway to more of our rights being taken away.
In the year March 1970, a woman dubbed Jane Roe took federal action against Texas abortion laws. These laws prevented Roe from terminating her pregnancy because abortions were only allowed in the scenario that the fetus was harming the life of the mother (Rosenbaum 63). Because Roe wasn’t in any way harmed by her pregnancy, she could not get an abortion. “Roe believed that TX statutes were unconstitutionally vague and that they abridged her right of personal privacy, protected by the First, Fourth, Fifth, Ninth, and Fourteenth Amendments” (Rosenbaum 64). She wanted an abortion done professionally in a clean and safe environment (Rosenbaum 63). Women before the legalization of abortion would resort to unsafe methods to terminate their baby (Tribe 113).
In the second part of the twentieth century, women’s rights once again gained a lot of momentum. The women’s liberation movement was born out of women civil right activists who were tired of waiting for legislative change for women’s rights. Even though women are being recognized more in society, they still face difficult issues. Sexism –especially in the workforce –is becoming a major issue, birth control pills are still not popular, and abortions are frowned upon in society. The case Roe v. Wade is about a woman with the fake name of Jane Roe who wanted an abortion but the state of Texas would not let her unless her life was in danger. She sued the district attorney of Dallas County saying that it violated the right to privacy under the 1st, 4th, 5th, 9th, and 14th Amendments. Usually, some arguments for being against abortions are because it is like killing a life, religious reasons, and less chance of future pregnancies. Some arguments that approve abortion are the rights of privacy and the mother to make her own decision. I decided to pick the landmark case Roe v. Wade because there are many ways to argue for and against abortions, so I wanted to give it an overarching view before I personally pick a side. Roe v. Wade is a significant case because it shows how rights in the Constitution do not have to be explicitly mentioned for it to implement and the change in abortion laws that affect women.
In 1971 Linda Coffee and Sarah Wellington sued on Norma McCorvey behalf, arguing that the state of Texas abortion law was unconstitutional. Defending the state of Texas was Henry Wade, district attorney of Dallas. The state of Texas only allowed abortions in cases where the mother’s life was at risk or the women was sexually assaulted. After two years of hearing evidence, the US Supreme Court affirms legality, a women’s right to abort, and that a right to privacy being implied by the Ninth and Fourteenth amendments in a 7-2 decision in 1973. It had encompassed a woman’s decision whether or not to stop her pregnancy. No states could restrict abortion during first three months or trimester of a pregnancy.
In 1973, in what has become a landmark ruling for women’s rights, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in favor of a woman’s right to an abortion. Ever since, individual states have adopted, altered, and/or mutilated the edict to fit their agendas – Texas included. However, the decision made by the justices in Roe v. Wade didn’t set clear cut, inarguable demarcation lines, which has allowed the fiery debate to consume the nation. Rather than establishing a legal ruling of what life is, or is not, the Supreme Court has remained silent on the issue.
Abortion has been an issue since 1820. In the beginning the problem was more about protecting doctors who have licenses. “Regular doctors thus had an incentive to ban abortion as part of an effort to drive irregular doctors many of whom were women out of business” (Straggenborg, p.211). The AMA (American Medical Association), which was the group that the regular doctors made, started a campaign that made the people believe that the white population was getting smaller and the population of the immigrants was rising. Abortions were made illegal to insure the stability of the population of American citizens. It seems odd that the only reason that abortions were made illegal at one point was because of money issues and a lust for white supremecy. It seemed to have nothing to do with the rights of a child or a woman. One of the reasons why abortion came into question in the beginning of the 1950s was due to the fact that a lot of doctors and lawyers were seeing many cases of illegal abortions and it was becoming a large social problem. Since there was a lack of competition for legal abortions, doctors found no problem making them legal again -- “They felt that abortions were justified under certain circumstances, and they begun to see the laws against abortion as an infringement on their own medical discretion” (Straggenborg, p.212). And so the issue arose again with many pro- choice groups speaking up. Then with court cases like Griswold v. Connecticut and Roe v. Wade, abortion again became legal in the United States.