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In 1970, Jane Roe (a fictional name used in court documents to protect the plaintiff’s identity) filed a lawsuit against Henry Wade, the district attorney of Dallas County, Texas, where she resided, challenging a Texas law making abortion illegal except by a doctor’s orders to save a woman’s life. In her lawsuit, Roe alleged that the state laws were unconstitutionally vague and abridged her right of personal privacy, protected by the First, Fourth, Fifth, Ninth, and Fourteenth Amendments.

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This is an example of judicial activism because the court was trying to pass a law to benefit the people.

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Warren E. Burger (Chief Justice)
William O. Douglas
William J. Brennan, Jr.
Potter Stewart
Byron R. White
Thurgood Marshall
Harry A. Blackmun
Lewis F. Powell, Jr.
William H. Rehnquist

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It said that the government had to protect the rights for women to choose to have an abortion. This impacts us today because many women around the nation choose to have abortions every day, and a lot of people think it is not ethical.

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Some people did not agree that abortions should be a woman's right as they said that abortions were not ethical.

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It was a 7-2 decision. Justice Harry Blackmun wrote the Majority Opinion. Most judges thought that women should have the right to be able to choose to have an abortion.

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Question Supreme Court was Attempting to Answer

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Question Supreme Court was Attempting to Answer

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Does the Constitution recognize a woman's right to terminate her pregnancy by abortion?

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The U.S. Supreme Court decision on January 22, 1973, in Roe vs. Wade made laws outlawing a woman's right to abortion unconstitutional. Sarah Weddington and Robert... read more

The U.S. Supreme Court decision on January 22, 1973, in Roe vs. Wade made laws outlawing a woman's right to abortion unconstitutional. Sarah Weddington and Robert Flowers argued the case of a Texas woman who sued the state for the right to have an abortion. The Texas statute was struck down due the vague nature of the law and the rights of the mother found in the 9th and 14th Amendments to the Constitution. Justice Harry Blackmun wrote the historic decision following weeks of research at the Mayo Clinic stating that the constitutional right to privacy was "broad enough to encompass a woman's decision whether or not to terminate her pregnancy." Justices Rehnquist and White wrote dissenting opinions in the 7-2 decision. Justice White wrote that the court acted illegitimately stating that the decision could only be justified as an exercise of "raw judicial power." close

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The U.S. Supreme Court decision on January 22, 1973, in [Roe vs. Wade] made laws outlawing a woman's right to abortion unconstitutional. Sarah Weddington and Robert Flowers argued the case of a Texas woman who sued the state for the right to have an abortion.