Did you know? 1973

  • Jan. 22: The U.S. Supreme Court issues its ruling in Roe v. Wade, finding that a “right of privacy” it had earlier discovered was “broad enough to encompass” a right to abortion and adopting a trimester scheme of pregnancy. In the first trimester, a state could enact virtually no regulation. In the second trimester, the state could enact some regulation, but only for the purpose of protecting maternal “health.” In the third trimester, after viability, a state could ostensibly “proscribe” abortion, provided it made exceptions to preserve the life and “health” of the woman seeking abortion. Issued on the same day, Doe v. Bolton defines “health” to mean “all factors” that affect the woman, including “physician,  emotional, psychological, familial, and the woman’s age.”

Source: https://www.nrlc.org/abortion/history/