Bill of Rights was held accountable only against the federal government.7 These new provisions to the Constitution further applied these rights to the states. It is imperative to recognize the significance of the 5th, 9th and 15th Amendments in order to understand the legal battle waged over anti-abortion legislation. III.
ROE V. WADE
In 1854, the state of Texas first enacted a criminal abortion statute that prosecuted those who sought to terminate their pregnancies. In 1879, this statute was amended to permit the removal of a fetus in the case of a medical emergency, to preserve the mother’s life.8 The next time the state of Texas would revise its abortion laws came when a woman under the pseudonym Jane Roe challenged the Texas’s unconstitutional law by filing a lawsuit against the district attorney, Henry Wade. Citing the Ninth Amendment, the defense argued that a woman’s right to privacy and liberty applies to family, marriage, and sex matters which may include the right to discontinue an unwanted pregnancy. The Fourteenth Amendment was also reviewed in relation to the state’s abortion laws which was rendered a violation of the Due Process Clause. In June 1970, the court ruled that the state’s abortion laws were unconstitutional due to their obstruction of privacy. In the opinion of the Court, the right to privacy is broad enough to encompass a woman’s decision on whether or not to terminate her pregnancy.9 In 1973, Roe v. Wade became a super precedent, a case widely referenced for its interpretation of women’s rights in the constitution, when the Supreme Court ruled that the Constitution protects all pregnant persons' right to terminate their pregnancy within the first two trimesters with the exception of medical emergencies during the third trimester.10 7
U.S. CONST. amend. XIV, § 2. Texas Abortion Statute Law 1854, c. 49, § 1. 9 Roe v. Wade, 410 U.S. at 152-53. 10 Roe v. Wade, 410 U.S. at 113. 8
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