The history extends beyond the Roe v. Wade case

While certainly controversial, the argument for abortion is not a novel concept. In fact, the first records of abortion were from 1550 BC in Egypt, emphasizing how women have been seeking the right to abortions for centuries of history. However, in the U.S. legal system, the three most prominent Supreme Court cases regarding the abortion issue are Griswold v. Connecticut (1965), Roe v. Wade (1973), and Planned Parenthood v. Casey (1992).

Starting with Griswold, after opening up a birth control clinic in New Haven, the head of the Connecticut Planned Parenthood Estelle Griswold along with gynecologist C. Lee Buxton was convicted of violating a Connecticut law passed in 1879 which banned the use of any form of contraception. However, in a 7-2 decision authored by Justice Douglas, the Court ruled that the First, Third, Fourth, Ninth, and Fourteenth Amendments create the right to privacy in marital relations, and thus the Connecticut law was held null and void. Roe v. Wade took the concept of the right to privacy further by challenging a Texas law making abortion illegal in all cases except to save a mother’s life. In another 7-2 decision, the justices concluded that the Due Process Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment protects a woman’s right to privacy, and therefore her right to choose to obtain an abortion. This ruling also set a different standard for all three trimesters. Finally, in a heated 5-4 decision, the justices in Casey reaffirmed Roe but upheld most of the provisions that the Pennsylvania legislature amended to its abortion control law. (The new law required informed consent and a twenty-four-hour waiting period prior to the procedure, as well as parental permission for minors and a wife’s indication that she notified her husband of her intent to abort). This final case introduced a new standard of validating abortion that asks whether state law imposes an “undue burden,” or a “substantial obstacle” on the woman seeking an abortion. 

Ultimately, the political fight for abortion goes beyond the Roe v. Wade decision and will continue to impact women in the United States even after the upcoming Supreme Court decision. For instance, many fear that the overturning of Roe would threaten other rights such as gay marriage and contraception that are rooted in the protection of privacy, as many judges, such as Justice Alito, maintain an originalist interpretation of the Constitution. These justices, also known as originalists, argue that there is no general right to privacy as such a right is not explicitly expressed in the Constitution, despite the counterargument that the Framers likely intended for the protection of privacy, as shown in the privacy of beliefs, the privacy of the home against soldiers, and the privacy of possessions expressed in the First, Third, and Fourth Amendments respectively. However, no matter what the Supreme Court rules after the unprecedented leak, one certainty is that the argument for or against abortion is far from over.