Richard Nixon
Definition and Summary of Roe v Wade
Summary and Definition: Until 1973, in keeping with the constitution, the right to regulate abortion was reserved to the states. This changed with the 1973 Supreme Court landmark decision in the case of Roe v Wade which ruled that state governments could not regulate abortion during the first three months until the end of the first trimester of pregnancy. This period of time that was interpreted as being within a woman’s constitutional right to privacy and protected by the Fourteenth Amendment (as recognized in 1965 Griswold v. Connecticut). The case of Roe v Wade was first argued on December 13, 1971 but, following a writ of certiorari, was re-argued in the Supreme Court