1. Roe v. Wade, 410 U.S. 113, 93 S. Ct. 705, 35 L. Ed. 2d 147 (1973)
Kaci Hott & Libby Jungo

2. What is the constitutional issue involved in the case?
The legality of a woman's right to have an abortion under the Fourteenth amendment to the Constitution
Does the Constitution embrace the right of a woman to obtain an abortion, nullifying the Texas prohibition?

3. Who were the parties involved in the case?
Norma McCorvey, who was known as Jane Roe, was a Texas resident who sought to obtain an abortion. Texas law prohibited abortions except to save the pregnant mother's life. McCorvey was pregnant when she became the lead plaintiff in the case. She gave up the baby for adoption.
Henry Wade, District Attorney of Dallas County from 1951 to Norma McCorvey sued him because he enforced a law that prohibited abortion, except to save a woman's life. He died on March 1, 2001.

4. When and where did the case take place?
ARGUED: Dec 13, REARGUED: Oct 11, DECIDED: Jan 22, 1973
US District Court for the Northern District of Texas

5. What events lead up to the case going before the Supreme Court?
1969: A group of young women in Chicago starts "Jane," an underground system that helps women find safe and affordable illegal abortions. Eventually they learn to perform the procedures themselves, completing nearly 12,000 abortions from to 1973, according to a documentary about the group
1972: The Supreme Court legalizes the use of birth control pills for all women, regardless of marital status. Before the decision, only married women were able to receive the pill through a doctor's prescription.

6. Historical Context: what was happening in the world that this case needed to be tried?
At the time Roe was decided, most states severely restricted or banned the practice of abortion. However, these restrictions were challenged amid the sexual revolution and feminist movements of the 1960s. In 1970, two recent graduates of the University of Texas Law School, Linda Coffee and Sarah Weddington, brought a lawsuit on behalf of a pregnant woman, Dallas area resident Norma L. McCorvey ("Jane Roe"), claiming a Texas law criminalizing most abortions violated Roe's constitutional rights. The Texas law banned all abortions except those necessary to save the life of the mother.

7. What was the Supreme Court’s ruling / decision?
A landmark decision by the U.S. Supreme Court that declared a pregnant woman is entitled to have an abortion until the end of the first trimester of pregnancy without any interference by the state.

8. What was the reasoning given by the Supreme Court for making their decision?
Writing for the majority, Justice Harry Blackmun acknowledged that while “the Constitution does not explicitly mention any right to privacy,” a number of prior decisions had found “a guarantee of certain areas or zones of privacy.” This guarantee of privacy, Blackmun added, is grounded in several amendments within the Bill of Rights and in the 14th Amendment’s guarantee of liberty, which taken together create zones of privacy in areas of society such as marriage, contraception, family relationships and child-rearing

9. Opposing viewpoints
There have been 56 million legal abortions since Roe
Roe scorned and dismissed medical ethics
Viability was said to be at the beginning at the third trimester, at 28 weeks. However, this is all based upon changing technology. Babies are living outside the womb younger and younger, some at even 22 or 23 weeks.
Roe was not a strictly constitutional decision

10. How do you feel about the ruling? Why?
I feel that the ruling should have been altered; I don't believe that abortion is right at all stages throughout pregnancy. Although I am pro-life and do not condone abortions, there are slim and certain instances where the ruling is applicable (rape cases, ect.)

11. Describe significance of other court cases related to your case Identify the immediate impact as well as long-term impact on society from this case.
People v. Belous and Doe v. Scott, which reached the Supreme Court in declare abortion laws unconstitutional. "That prompted people all over the place to start putting together cases... challenging state abortion laws," Reagan says.

12. Impact now
2000: The Food and Drug Administration approves the abortion pill RU The drug enables a woman to terminate a pregnancy within seven weeks from her last menstrual period, without the need for a surgical abortion.
September 14, A three-judge panel of the 5th US Circuit Court of Appeals in New Orleans dismisses a motion from the original plaintiff in Roe v. Wade to have the case overturned, a court clerk tells CNN. McCorvey's motion claimed she had new information that would affect the 1973 case.