From the Annals of the Supreme Court –  In 1973, the U.S. Supreme Court issued its decision in Roe v. Wade, 410 U.S. 113 (1973), which declared that criminal laws against abortion were unconstitutional.  The case involved Norma L. McCorvey (using the alias Jane Roe) who discovered she was pregnant with her third child.  When she returned to Dallas, she first sought an illegal abortion at a site that had been closed by the police. Eventually, she was referred to Texas attorneys Linda Coffee and Sarah Weddington.   Coffee and Weddington filed suit in a U.S. District Court in Texas on behalf of McCorvey against Dallas County District Attorney Henry Wade who represented the State of Texas.  Although McCorvey would give birth before the case was finally decided, the Supreme ultimately invalidated laws criminalizing abortion.

The much hailed and criticized opinion expanded on the previous decision in Griswold v. Connecticut, 381 U.S. 479 (1965),in which the Court ruled that the U.S. Constitution protected a right to privacy.  That case overturned a Connecticut statute that prohibited use of contraceptive devices and drugs on the grounds that it violated the “right to marital privacy”.   Roe v. Wade was an expansion of the right to privacy into the area of the right of a woman to choose to terminate a pregnancy in the first two trimesters.

The U.S. has an interesting history when it comes to the legality of abortion. Roe did not mark the first time that abortion became a legal procedure.  Some historians point out that for much of the country’s early history, abortion was not a criminal offense and not generally thought to be immoral.  In the 1700s and early 1800s, the word “abortion” referred only to the termination of a pregnancy after “quickening,” the time when the fetus first began to make noticeable movements.  Before quickening, women had a variety of drugs available to end an unwanted pregnancy.

 The first state prohibition was passed In 1827 by Illinois.  That law made the use of abortion drugs or devices punishable by up to three years’ imprisonment.  Other states passed similar laws but “Female Monthly Pills,” as the abortifacients were known were commonly sold until the middle of the 19th century.

Abortion was widely criminalized between 1860 and 1880. But the practice was not outlawed because of widespread moral outrage over the practice.  Rather, the anti-abortion movement was an anti-competitive campaign waged by the recently established American Medical Association. Doctors viewed abortionists as unwanted competition.  When the Catholic Church, which had long accepted terminating pregnancies before quickening, joined the doctors in condemning the practice, the end of legal abortion quickly followed.

By 1900, abortion was illegal throughout all 50 states.  The prohibition did not stop abortion because the laws were rarely enforced and any women with enough money could terminate a pregnancy. Things changed by mid-century as law enforcement stepped up crack-downs on abortion providers.  This led to a reform movement that succeeded in lifting abortion restrictions in California and New York even before the Supreme Court decision in Roe v. Wade.

The controversy over Roe continues today as many states, including Texas, have attempted to legislate around the margins of Roe and restrict abortion as much as possible without running afoul of constitutional challenges.