Hannah Adams
• Plaintiff:
Norma McCorvey or “Jane Roe”
• Defendant:
Henry Wade (the district attorney of Dallas County
from 1951 to 1987)
• United States District
Court for the Northern
District of Texas.
• Unmarried and pregnant Texas resident in 1970.
• Filed suit against Wade.
• Challenged that the abortion law violated the
guarantee of person liberty and the right to
privacy implicitly guaranteed in the First, Fourth,
Fifth, Ninth, and Fourteenth Amendments.
• A three-judge panel.
• Agreed that the abortion law
violated Roe’s rights.
• Refused to issue an injunction
that would have prevented the
law from being enforced
against all pregnant women.
• Case originally argued on December 13,
1971.
• Case was then reargued on October 11,
1972.
• Decision was delivered on January 22,
1973.
• Decision Makers:
Associate Justice Potter Stewart
William O. Douglas
Chief Justice Warren Berger
Associate Justice William J. Brennan Jr.
Byron A. White
Associate Justice Lewis F. Powell Jr.
Thurgood Marshall
Harry A. Blackmun
William H. Rehnquist
• Ended in a 7- 2 opinion.
• Decided that:
During first trimester of pregnancy a woman could
have an abortion on demand without interference from
the state.
During second trimester the state could regulate
abortions for safety, but could not prohibit them
entirely.
During third trimester the state could regulate or
forbid all abortions except to save the life of the
mother.
• Impact on Providers:
Clinicians and clinic staff have been harassed
and stalked, at their workplaces, homes, and
places of worship.
Protesters have even shown up at the school of
the providers’ children.
• Impact on American Political Culture:
Abortion opponents make up “base” of the Republican
Party.
Has gradually reshaped American politics.
• Impact on Women:
Lowered the number of women who died from illegal
abortions.
Gave women rights to make their own decision.
• I strongly agree with the Courts decision.
• This case was one step closer to gaining more
rights for women.
• Women should be given a chance to choose what
they want to do with their bodies.
• They may choose abortion due to not having the
necessities to care for a child.
 Picture Cites:
• http://archive.thetowntalk.com/article/20070318/COMMUNITIES/703160
370/From-EWE-Jane-Roe-Avoyelles-has-produced-well-known-people
• http://www.glogster.com/payton10/roe-v-wade/g6mm48mquhr8ed8rjfdbtja0
• www.txnd.uscourts.gov
• www.contraception.about.com
• www.pbs.org
• www.nydailynews.com
• www.bloomberg.com
• www.soc.ucsb.edu
• www.thinkprogress.org
• www.thinkprogress.org
• www.ourweekly.com
 Information Cites:
• https://www.dissentmagazine.org/article/roe-v-wade-and-beyond-fortyyears-of-legal-abortion-in-the-united-states
• http://www.streetlaw.org/en/Page/661/Summary_of_the_Decision
• http://www.streetlaw.org/en/Page/660/Key_excerpts_from_the_dissentin
g_opinion
• http://www.streetlaw.org/en/Page/659/Key_excerpts_from_the_majority
_opinion
• http://www.pbs.org/wnet/supremecourt/rights/landmark_roe.html
• https://www.oyez.org/cases/1971/70-18
• http://www.streetlaw.org/en/landmark/cases/roe_v_wade
• http://www.streetlaw.org/en/Page/634/How_the_Case_Moved_through_t
he_Court_System
• http://studentsforlife.org/prolifefacts/abortion-facts/
• https://www.plannedparenthood.org/files/3013/9611/5870/Abortion_Roe
_History.pdf