Does anyone know the reasoning behind Roe vs Wade?

Question

I'm not sure that I have all the facts right on this one but I need to know. I was under the assumption that Roe vs Wade was based on women getting raped, who didn't feel it was fair to be forced to carry a pregnanct to term. Has it turned into an alternative to Pregnancy?

Aahh, not trying to start c**p, just want my facts straight if I have to go up against this. I am weak in this category and don't like to mis-speak.

Answer 1

Twinmomg-  has the facts correct about why abortion was legalized- however did you know that Roe , the woman who fought to legalize abortion,  has gone before the supreme court to try and reverse the decision, because she realizes what abortion has become- a choice to kill. 4,000 babies a day are aborted in the USA alone- and did you know that only about 4% of these abortions are because of rape, or health of mother? Yes, abortion is an alternative to carrying your child to term - (parenting or adoption).  Remember that something that is legal is not necessarily right.

To Twinmomg-  I adopted 2 of those children that were almost aborted, but I am not responsible for all the children, however you are saying that because there may not be parents for all the aborted babies- it is ok to kill them?

Answer 2

Roe vs Wade has nothing to do with Rape....

On January 22, 1973, the U.S. Supreme Court announced its decision in Roe v. Wade, a challenge to a Texas statute that made it a crime to perform an abortion unless a woman's life was at stake. The case had been filed by "Jane Roe," an unmarried woman who wanted to safely and legally end her pregnancy. Siding with Roe, the court struck down the Texas law. In its ruling, the court recognized for the first time that the constitutional right to privacy "is broad enough to encompass a woman's decision whether or not to terminate her pregnancy" (Roe v. Wade, 1973).

Roe has come to be known as the case that legalized abortion nationwide. At the time the decision was handed down, nearly all states outlawed abortion except to save a woman's life or for limited reasons such as preserving the woman's health or in instances of rape, incest, or fetal anomaly. Roe rendered these laws unconstitutional, making abortion services safer and more accessible to women throughout the country. But since Roe, Americans have seen the passage of state laws that restrict access to abortion and the willingness of courts to uphold these restrictions.

To AdoreHim...

What you are suggesting...adding 1.5 million unwanted babies a year into our social system?  Who do you suggest pay for their care?  I understand adoption, but for 1.5 million?  

A woman has a right to her privacy and to choose what is best for her situation....We don't have the right to judge others for their decisions....

I think adoption is a wonderful gift you can give and I am not suggesting that all unwanted pregnancies should be aborted, but I absolutely think women have the right to decide if that is the best option for them...and for millions of women that is the best option...I just don't think the government has the right to interfere with that individual choice....

Answer 3

The central holding of Roe v. Wade was that abortions are permissible for any reason a woman chooses, up until the "point at which the fetus becomes ‘viable,’ that is, potentially able to live outside the mother's womb, albeit with artificial aid.

This will help you:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roe_v._Wade

http://www.law.cornell.edu/supct/html/hi...

Answer 4

I got my first period that day... Being in a family with a Preacher Uncle who grew up in an Orphanage--and was never adopted it was also the Day my Aunt and Uncle decided to not only Foster children but to adopt a baby themselves...

I remember this day....

By the way Roe has now said she regrets this case... Her baby WAS not Aborted as it took too long for the legal case...

Answer 5

Whether caused by rape or not, isn't abortion always an alternative to pregnancy?

Answer 6

It started with Roe not wanting to have to carry a pregnancy period.  She took on the state of Texas in a federal supreme court case.  It was resolved on the right to privacy.  Not the anonymous kind. The right to privacy means the right to be free from governmental interference. She was basically telling the state of Texas and the rest of the country to stay out of her panties.  She did place at least two children up for adoption.  There was also a doctor involved in the case and a married couple.  

The government has no business in regulating our personal relationships nor controlling our sexual activity.

Answer 7

You want to know what I think?

It's just another way that men can get out of their responsibilities. Was everyone aware that Margaret Sanger the founder of modern day Planned Parenthood was a racist?

It's no mistake the first PP clinic was set up in Harlem to help rid the world of "undesireables". She supported eugenics

We always talk about abortion in terms of the fetus, how about what it does to woman? I have seen two of my friends devastated because of this....I am not judging them I am just d**n angry woman are treated like this!

It's sad but woman are only faced with two choices when it comes to an unplanned pregnancy....why should the burden be carried always by the mother? Why should she always be ostracized by society no matter what her decision....damned if you do, damned if you don't.

They tell you to take birth control....have an abortion.....put the baby up for adoption...and why?  Usually because a MAN can't step up to the plate. Yet men have no problem spreading their seed around do they? They have no problem objectifying woman.

The pharmeseutical companies know how often birth control fails and yet they just keep manipulating their posions and encouraging young woman to allow them to experiemnt on their bodies. It saddens me to see such a lack of respect for woman all around.

It seems to be that in 2008 woman should have better options. Woman have the right to control their bodies...but ask yourself who is REALLY controlling our bodies?

Answer 8

No I believe it has nothing to do with rape.

Answer 9

Roe vs Wade is based on a woman's Constitutional right to privacy.  The Supreme Court decided that her "right of privacy, [as] founded in the Fourteenth Amendment's concept of personal liberty [...]" includes the right to decide what goes on inside her body up to the point of fetal viability.

We can't force someone to let another use his or her body.  We can't force someone to, say, donate his kidney to someone who will die without it.  So we can't force a woman to undergo a full-term pregnancy and birth if she doesn't want to; it's her decision.  It doesn't matter whether she was raped or not.

Answer 10

A very good question. Lori.  The impetus behind Roe v. Wade, and the movement to legalize abortion was based on the fact that, despite abortion being illegal, many women were getting them anyway and dying of illegal, back-alley abortions.  

The argument was that since women were getting abortions anyway, it was cruel to let them die because medically safe abortions weren't available.  It had nothing to do with the reason the woman was pregnant, or the morality of abortion.  It was simply to save women's lives.

Answer 11

My understanding of Roe v Wade was that it allowed abortion unrestricted in the first trimester, but allowed later term abortions if the mother's health was at risk.  However, the decision went on to define "health" as physical health, mental health, social health, economic health, etc, essentially making the definition so broad as to allow a second or third trimester abortion for virtually any reason.

Edit: I believe at the time Jane "Roe" claimed that she was pregnant as a result of a rape, but later recanted that.

Answer 12

According to wikipedia and other sites the woman Norma L. McCorvey  aka Jane Roe DID originally claim to have been raped.  She later claimed it to be untrue and that it was actually consensual.

The child she was pregnant with during the case was carried to full term and placed for adoption as her case had not yet been heard.

In an interview from the eighties, McCorvey expressed dismay towards her lawyers who she felt used her to make a point rather than pointing her towards an illegal procedure instead, to which she felt they had access as one of her lwayers had previously had an illegal abortion herself.

McCorvey did have a change of heart in the nineties and is now firmly pro-life.