Roe vs Wade - Difference and Comparison

Roe v. Wade , 410 U.S. 113 (1973) is a controversial United States Supreme Court case that resulted in a landmark decision regarding abortion. According to the Roe decision, most laws against abortion in the United States violated a constitutional right to privacy under the Due Process Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment. The decision overturned all state and federal laws outlawing or restricting abortion that were inconsistent with its holdings. Roe v. Wade is one of the most controversial and politically significant cases in U.S. Supreme Court history. Its lesser-known companion case, Doe v. Bolton, was decided at the same time.

Roe v. Wade centrally held that a mother may abort her pregnancy for any reason, up until the "point at which the fetus becomes ‘viable.’" The Court defined viable as being potentially able to live outside the mother's womb, albeit with artificial aid. Viability usually occurs at about seven months (28 weeks) but may occur earlier, even at 24 weeks." The Court also held that abortion after viability must be available when needed to protect a woman's health, which the Court defined broadly in the companion case of Doe v. Bolton. These rulings affected laws in 46 states.

The Roe v. Wade decision prompted national debate that continues today. Debated subjects include whether and to what extent abortion should be legal, who should decide the legality of abortion, what methods the Supreme Court should use in constitutional adjudication, and what the role should be of religious and moral views in the political sphere. Roe v. Wade reshaped national politics, dividing much of the nation into pro-Roe (mostly pro-choice) and anti-Roe (mostly pro-life) camps, and inspiring grassroots activism on both sides.

Comparison chart

Roe versus Wade comparison chart

	Roe	Wade
Real name	Norma Leah McCorvey (legal pseudonym Jane Roe)	Henry Menasco Wade
Date of birth	September 22, 1947	November 11, 1914
Place of birth	Simmesport in Avoyelles Parish, Louisiana	Rockwall County, Texas
Occupation	Director, Crossing Over Ministry	Lawyer, District Attorney

"Roe" and Wade

The plaintiff -- or appellant -- in the case was Norma Leah McCorvey, who used the pseudonym Jane Roe to protect her privacy. The defendant -- or appellee -- in the case was Henry Wade, who was the Dallas County District Attorney at the time of the lawsuit (1970).

History of the case

Sarah Weddington and Linda Coffee were the lawyers representing McCorvey ("Roe"). McCorvey was 21 years old in 1969 and pregnant with her third child. She wanted an abortion but Texas law prevented her from getting one. McCorvey's lawyers filed suit in 1970 in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Texas on behalf of McCorvey. When they lost, they filed an appeal with the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit and won on appeal. However, the appellate court did not grant an injunction enforcing the Texas law banning abortions. The case reached the Supreme Court in Jun 1970; by that time McCorvey had already delivered the baby. Jay Floyd and Robert C. Flowers were the lawyers representing Wade. The case was decided in favor of McCorvey by a 7-2 margin.

Doe v. Bolton

Doe v. Bolton was a related case, whose decision was released the same day as Roe v. Wade, in which the Supreme Court overturned the abortion law of Georgia. Under that Georgia law, abortion was only permitted in cases of rape, severe fetal deformity, or the possibility of severe or fatal injury to the mother. Other restrictions included the requirement that the procedure be approved in writing by 3 physicians and by a three-member special committee that either (1) continued pregnancy would endanger the pregnant woman's life or "seriously and permanently" injure her health; (2) the fetus would "very likely be born with a grave, permanent and irremediable mental or physical defect"; or (3) the pregnancy resulted from rape or incest. In addition, only Georgia residents could receive abortions under this statutory scheme: non-residents could not have an abortion in Georgia under any circumstances.

The plaintiff in that case used the pseudonym Mary Doe and the defendant was Georgia's attorney general at the time -- Arthur K. Bolton. The same 7-2 majority in the Roe v. Wade decision also decided in favor of the plaintiff in Doe v. Bolton and invalidated the restrictions of the Georgia abortion law, including the medical approval and residency requirements.

Subsequent related cases

The Supreme Court revisited and modified Roe's legal rulings in its 1992 decision Planned Parenthood v. Casey. In Casey, the Court reaffirmed Roe's holding that a woman's right to choose to have an abortion is constitutionally protected, but abandoned Roe's trimester framework in favor of a standard based on fetal viability and overruled the strict scrutiny standard for reviewing abortion restrictions.