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Roe vs. Wade Case Study

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Roe vs. Wade Case Study
Babes Bolyai University,
Faculty of European Studies,
American Studies, second year

ROE v. WADE 410 U. S. 113 (1973)

Prof Coordinator: Student: Adela Horatiu Damian Marina Riza

Year: 2007 - 2008

Roe v. Wade is one of the most controversial and politically significant cases in U.S. Supreme Court history. This case resulted in a landmark decision regarding abortion. The parties involved were: the plaintiff- Jane Roe( Norma L. McCorvey) a single woman who was residing in Dallas County, Texas, James Hubert Hallford- physician, John and Mary Doe, a married couple and the defendant: - Dallas County District Attorney Henry Wade, representing the State of Texas.

Facts Articles 1191-1194 and 1196 of the State's Penal Code make it a crime to "procure an abortion," as therein defined, or to attempt one, except with respect to "an abortion procured or attempted by medical advice for the purpose of saving the life of the mother." England’s first criminal abortion statute came in 1803. It made abortion of a quick fetus , 1, a capital crime, but in 2 it provided lesser penalties for the felony of abortion before quickenig- which is the first recognizable movement of the fetus in uretro, appearing usually from the 16th to the 18th week of pregnancy, and thus preserved the quickening distinction. Jane Roe was an unmarried and pregnant woman who wished to terminate her pregnancy by an abortion "performed by a competent, licensed physician, under safe, clinical conditions"; she claimed that she was unable to get a "legal" abortion in Texas because her life did not appear to be threatened by the continuation of her pregnancy; and that she could not afford to travel to another jurisdiction in order to
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