by Thomas Walters

Created on: February 02, 2009

Roe v. Wade, the most controversial case in Supreme Court history is completely just. This court case decided 7-2 in 1973, struck down laws banning abortion, and I know the Justices made the correct decision. Since the ruling abortion numbers are closing in on 50,000,000 - 50,000,000 cases in which an unlucky woman has a second chance to live her life to the extent she always wanted to. These reasons show me that besides being constitutionally sound, this ruling was morally accurate.

Constitutionally, Jane Roe's case was a perfectly fine case to make. The Texas law she would have "violated" was not constitutional, as it did not follow the Fourteenth Amendment itself. The amendment states, "No State shall make or enforce any law which shall abridge the privileges or immunities of the citizens of the United States." Basically, you cannot take away a right that the federal government promises to protect. According to the Fourth Amendment, "The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated." Now at that time the state of Texas had a ban placed on abortion. Abortion is under the category of privacy of person, and according to the Fourth Amendment, the government cannot intervene, nor can a state abridge that right, as stated by the Fourteenth Amendment.

One of the most controversial statements of the pro-life vs. pro-choice battle is that a woman has a right to her body and all inside it. Now we confront a morally challenging dilemma here where we must decide if a woman has a right to decide whether the fetus lives or dies, or if the fetus has a constitutional right to life. Look at this from a governmental perspective. A person has the right to life, liberty, and pursuit of happiness from the moment they are born. If you are one for semantics, then technically the fetuses do not have those rights.

Statistics on abortion after 1973 show that women who obtain abortions do not run into many medical or emotional complications. In fact, the Guttmacher Institute states, "Fewer than 0.3 percent of abortion patients experience a complication that requires hospitalization." Studies were done with conclusive evidence on the mental health of abortion patients. For instance, an American Psychological Association's study showed that, "There is no credible evidence that a single elective abortion of an unwanted pregnancy in and of itself causes mental health problems for adult women."

Abortion will always be a controversial subject wherever it is brought up. The truth is though that abortion has supplied many women with a new future, and more likely, if they decide to have children in the future, a better life for them. Roe v. Wade allowed for this to happen, and has been upheld by studies along the way. This ruling finally put the woman's rights first, and that's the way it should be.

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