Roe V Wade

       Mr. Doggett's lecture on Roe v Wade and the events that led to it was very thorough and interesting. He talked about the ways women in a world pre-modern medicine would perform abortions through leaches, meat pulverizers, and lie. All these methods were deeply horrifying and would make anyone question whether allowing modern abortions is better than those methods. This was a good precursor to the legal history of Roe v Wade, it gave an emotional foundation to an emotional issue, fought in a logic based court system. First case discussed was Skinner v Oklahoma which involved taking away a man's right to having children, this support Roe's eventual case because it violated a person's 14th amendment right to equal protection. Then, we talked about Griswold v Connecticut which involved a woman working for Planned Parenthood handing out condoms which violated the Comstock laws in place. Her lawyers argued that she had a right to privacy, but that was not enumerated in the Constitution, so she argued that there was a penumbra of privacy in the Bill of Rights that implied a right to privacy.The Roe v Wade case determined in a 7-2 vote that the 14th Amendment’s Due Process Clause implicated that women had a right to privacy and thus the right to choose whether or not to get an abortion. This decision overturned the former statute in Texas that said that only women whose lives were in danger were allowed to get abortions. Jane Roe, a Texas women, wanted an abortion on what would be her third child, after having two healthy children. Thus, she was a healthy candidate to have a child. So, she was not qualified to get an abortion in Texas, she protested this and using precedents set in Griswold V. Connecticut about the right to privacy’s implied representation in the constitution. The court determined the 14th Amendment prevented the States from being involved in the first two trimesters of a woman's pregnancy, but as the pregnancy continued, the State would have more interest and more of a right to intervene. This made the court decide to outlaw abortion of a fetus with healthy conditions in the 3rd Trimester. In total, this case allowed women to have the right to choose to get an abortion and was a major victory for the progressive movement.

This lecture reminded me of the conjecture today on whether or not to repeal Roe v Wade. Today, most people talk about Roe v Wade and it is very divisive, but not many know the true origins of Roe v Wade and Constitutional Principles attached to it. These principles are forgotten when the killings of 11 people and murder of 7 happens all on the accord of Anti-abortion. When emotion and religion are mixed, people are bound to do something irrational and violent without knowing the facts of a case or why something is done. Mr. Doggett’s lecture provided a light into the world of abortion and a step back from all the conjecture of both sides.