History: Roe v. Wade and The Legality of Abortion

Roe v. Wade is a Supreme Court case that lasted from 1971-1973. In 1973, the Supreme Court of the United States ruled that extreme or unreasonable state regulation of abortion is unconstitutional.

This is because 7 of the 9 supreme court justices at the time believed that states passing strict abortion laws with few exceptions violated a woman’s right to privacy and therefore her right to liberty. Norma Leah Nelson McCorvey, or “Roe,” had won.

Now, in 2019, many states are denouncing this ruling. These states include Alabama, Georgia, Kentucky, Mississippi, Ohio, Missouri, Arkansas, and Utah.

Some of these states are attempting to prohibit abortions after 6-8 weeks of pregnancy, while some states are pushing for a ban of the procedure after a certain point within the second trimester. Many of these bans are not yet in effect, and some are even expected to reach the Supreme Court.

States such as Mississippi and Ohio have signed fetal heartbeat bills. A fetal heartbeat bill bans abortion as soon as an embryonic or fetal heartbeat can be detected from the unborn child. A fetal heartbeat can usually be detected 6 weeks into a pregnancy. States like Kentucky and Iowa attempted to do similar things but they were shut down.