THE CASE OF ROU AGAINST WADE: THE SOCIAL CIRCUMSTANCES THAT LED TO THE LEGALIZATION OF ABORTION IN THE UNITED STATES

Abstract

The decision in Roe v. Wade has taken more lives than any other court decision in judicial history – or the history of the United States. From the moment the decision was passed in 1973 until early 2018 as many as 60 million unborn children have lost their lives to abortion in the United States. Instead of the promised feeling of control over their own body, which would help them become “equal” with men, this “choice” has brought millions of women remorse, grief and unrelenting pain. In order to understand how the Supreme Court came to such a decision, we need to look at the personality of Jane Roe, in whose name the case was filed, as well as the social climate and developments in the United States in the second half of the 20th century.

This critical decision concerns that which is most sacred and precious – hu-man life – and was made before the introduction of the sonogram which first enab-led us to see into the uterus and which proved, beyond any doubt, the humanity of the unborn child since very early on in pregnancy. Although medical textbooks at the time stated that life begins at conception, the subsequent technological and me-dical advance allowed us an insight into the indisputable facts that sustain this sta-nce. It is necessary to bring up this issue in modern society so that it can be debated and earlier convictions and beliefs re-examined. Many women who did an abortion said they did not feel as if they made a reasonable choice out of several options but rather as if they did not have a choice at all. It is therefore critical that all stakehol-ders in society make an effort to help women by offering them more choices, and not just the death of their child.