Summary
When a young Dallas woman—known publicly as Jane Roe—was denied the right to terminate her pregnancy, she found a lawyer who would take her case all the way to the Supreme Court. Roe’s lawyer charged that the Texas law that made having or performing an abortion a criminal act violated the First, Fourth, Fifth, Ninth, and Fourteenth Amendments. In 1973, after four years in the court system, Roe's case was decided. According to Justice Harry Blackmun, “The right of privacy, whether it be founded in the Fourteenth Amendment's concept of personal liberty and restrictions on state action...or...in the Ninth Amendment's reservation of rights to the people, is broad enough to encompass a woman's decision to terminate her pregnancy.” Thus, all state laws outlawing abortion were overturned. Perhaps the Court’s most controversial case, 410 U.S. 113 continues to incite debate, fuel emotions, and influence political campaigns and elections. Roe v. Wade: Protecting a Woman's Right to Choose offers a comprehensive history of this polemical decision, supplementing lucidly written text with full-color photographs, detailed footnotes, biographies, and more.
Specifications
Full-color photographs. Glossary. Sidebars. Chronology/Timeline. Further reading. Bibliography. Source notes. Index.
About the Author(s)
Susan Tyler Hitchcock is a nonfiction writer and editor. She received a B.A. and an M.A. in English from the University of Michigan and a Ph.D. in English from the University of Virginia. Currently a contract book editor for the National Geographic Society, she has written professionally for more than 30 years, contributing to newspapers, magazines, and essay anthologies, as well as writing her own books.