Women’s Abortion Rights have always been constantly debated. Earlier this year Politico released a leaked draft suggesting that Roe V. Wade might be overturned. A month following the leaked draft came the official Supreme Court overturning of Roe taking away the constitutional right to an abortion. Many people were shocked by this and the AP Government teacher here at Neuwirth, Mrs. Ford even says “I was very angry and shocked.”
Although many think Roe V. Wade was the first case about abortion to reach the Supreme Court it was actually United States V. Vuitch where physician Milan Vuitch performed abortions and was arrested over the course of 16 years. This banned the practice of abortion except in the case when it was necessary for the health and life of the women. Following the day the Supreme Court ruled this decision the court voted to hear Roe. The case took place in 1970 when “Jane Roe '' also known as Norma McCorvey filed a lawsuit against Henry Wade, a district attorney of Dallas County, Texas. Roe challenged the Texas law that made abortion illegal except when it was necessary to save the women’s life. She said the law was unconstitutional because it violated the 9th and 14th Amendments. On January 22, 1973, the court ruled that the Due Process Clause of the 14th Amendment states that no state shall “deprive any person of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law”, implying the right to privacy. When asked whether Roe v. Wade is protected by the 14th and 9th Amendments, Ford stated, “I do. What happens inside a woman's body is her privacy and those amendments protect that privacy”. Roe V. Wade would just be the beginning of many cases discussing the right to an abortion.
Roe V. Wade was put in place for nearly 50 years but this would all change after the 2022 ruling of Dobbs V. Jackson Women’s Health Organization. Julie Rikelman, Senior Litigation Director for the Center of Reproductive Rights, represented the Jackson Women’s Health Organization, the last abortion clinic in Mississippi which challenged Mississippi’s law banning abortion at 15 weeks of pregnancy. According to the Center for Reproductive Rights, Julie Rikelman argued, “For a state to take control of a woman’s body and demand that she go through pregnancy and childbirth, with all the physical risks and life-altering consequences that brings, is a fundamental deprivation of her liberty.” In the end, the Supreme Court upheld Mississippi’s ban on abortion at 15 weeks, overturning Roe V. Wade in the process taking away the constitutional right to an abortion. It is now up to the states to decide whether abortions would be legal or illegal in their state.
Some states decided to make abortions illegal right after the overturning of Roe V. Wade. There were even states like Texas, Mississippi, Tennesse, etc. that enacted an abortion trigger ban. A trigger ban is meant for laws to be taken into effect almost immediately. In places like Texas, the trigger ban allows people to be charged with a first-degree or second-degree felony if they attempt or provide an abortion. So what does this mean for the people of California?
Fortunately, here in California the right to an abortion is protected under Proposition 1 which was passed this November and adds the right to an abortion and contraceptives. While your rights to an abortion are protected by the government, the recent votes in other states, as well as the long and fraught history of women’s reproductive rights in this country, it is important that you stay alert, stay informed, and vote for representatives who share your values when you are eligible to vote in the coming years.