by Laurence Heads

Created on: March 26, 2009

Prior to 1973 abortions were allowed in certain states but not in others. In those states where it was banned, many complications occurred. An article in the New York Times provides personal experience from Dr. Waldo L. Fielding. He discusses the use of coat hangers and other objects that were used in order to try and prevent the birth of their unwanted child. He shows how this led to many dangerous operations that he had to perform in order to save the life of the patient and sometimes the child if it was still alive. These actions could not go on for much longer within a society such as that of America, a developed country seen as a leader of the modern world. This is where the case of Roe vs. Wade came forward. It is important to remember that Roe vs. Wade did not mean that abortions could be performed. They have always been done, dating from ancient Greek days. What Roe said was that ending a pregnancy could be carried out by medical personnel, in a medically accepted setting, thus conferring on women, finally, the full rights of first-class citizens and freeing their doctors to treat them as such.

The case of Roe vs. Wade was a historic case that made it up to the Supreme Court. This is a long sequence of events that leads (at the discretion of the Supreme Court) to a final opinion being released. A case is either filed in a U.S. state of federal court. Then an application can be filed for Supreme Court review by appeal or writ of certiorari (a request for the court to order up the records from a lower court to review the case). Then it goes into the Cert Pool where clerks help justices select only the most important cases for the discuss list. The justices then decide in conference which cases on the discuss list to hear using the rule of four (at least four justices of the Supreme Court must vote to consider a case in order for it to be heard). It then goes to the Supreme Court docket, after which briefs are submitted by both sides. Then this leads into an oral argument. After which there is the Supreme Court Justices conference where the case is discussed, votes are taken and the opinion writing is assigned by the Head Justice if he is in the majority, if not it is the most senior justice who is in the majority decides. The opinions are drafted and circulated for comment and a final opinion is then released.

The Roe vs. Wade case originated in 1970, as attorneys Linda Coffee and Sarah Weddington filed suit in a U.S. District Court in Texas on behalf of

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