Essay Example on Abortion: Roe v. Wade

Some people take the right to their body for granted, but many do not have bodily autonomy. Just in 57 countries around the world half of the women that live there don’t have a right to their bodies. That means they don’t always get to have a choice about things like having sex, using birth control, or seeking health care. This is an ongoing problem in many places and has been a problem for a long time. The U. S. had the same problems, and nothing was done about it until January 22, 1973. A woman by the name of Norma McCorvey sued a man named Henry Wade because he would not allow her to get an abortion and the court case rose to the Supreme court eventually on January 22, 1973, Roe v. Wade was passed, and abortion became legal everywhere in the US though some states could put some restrictions on it. 

Before Roe V. Wade was set in place many states made it illegal to get an abortion, or the women in question had to have permission from their husband (and if they didn’t have one, they couldn’t ask for an abortion), and still, other states made it, so you had to be under 2-4 months pregnant. Because of many restrictions on abortions in certain places, women started to find back ally illegal ways to get abortions, but they were not always safe. They had a much lower survival rate than ones done legally, but even so many women had to resort to it. One of the dangerous things in certain states is that getting an abortion was considered homicide and the punishment for that was death, so a woman who would die from giving birth was given two options; one you die from the pregnancy, or two you try to get an abortion which may lead to death anyway, so it is a very scary situation to be put in. 

There are many scary scenarios you could be in because of these laws here is just one example. If a 13-year-old girl gets raped the person who did the raping would get a less severe punishment than the girl would if she tried to get an abortion because of the rape. So not only would she have to go through the trauma of being raped but she would either have to go through the trauma of being pregnant and then giving birth or either having to raise a child or put them up for adoption which would be incredibly difficult. Or you would have to figure out a way to BREAK THE LAW which in itself would be traumatic for a 13-year-old girl. Before Roe V. Wade was put in place where women in the US lived a much more dangerous life. 

Roe V. Wade started with one woman named Norma McCorvey. She was pregnant at the time and wanted an abortion but at the time it was illegal in Texas. She went searching for help and found a group of people that were also interested in turning the laws against abortions and this group filed a lawsuit against Henry Wade the district attorney of Dallas, which was where Norma McCorvey lived at the time, during this lawsuit Norma McCorvey helped but under a different name, she went by the name Jane Roe while in the courtroom. The court rose slowly through the ranks until it reached the supreme court, and, in the end, they passed what we know as Roe V. Wade. McCorvey had given birth by the time that Roe V. Wade was passed, but she was happy with the results and as she grew older, she became involved in more women's rights movements. 

Even though Roe V. Wade passed the restrictions were not very tight, so the states were still able set their restrictions, and some states still had a lot of restrictions on abortion. The reason why the Supreme court ruled in favor of Norma McCorvey is that banning abortions takes away a woman's right to her body and because of that it is unconstitutional but now things are different. Because of President Donald Trump, the supreme court is skewed, and they are planning on overturning Roe V. Wade because it does not directly state in the 14 amendments that abortions can't be illegal, but that also opens up a whole world of horrible possibilities because the 14 amendments don’t say anything about the LGBTQ community. For example, intersexual marriage, changing genders, and much more could be made illegal because they are not directly stated in the 14 amendments.  Roe V. Wade played a very important part in the women's rights movement, but Roe V. Wade will probably not be around much longer which is scary for many people.