What exactly is abortion? Abortion is the process of terminating a pregnancy. Four decades ago abortion was illegal in the United States. Few states had legal abortions and the ones that did had very strict regulations on when and how they could be done. The Roe v. Wade case in 1973 changed the legality of abortion and privacy rights of women (Roe v. Wade). This ruling allowed women to get an abortion anywhere in the nation. The increased freedom gave women more rights and allowed them to make major life decisions. The ruling made sure that abortion was legal for all women through the first trimester after the period of twelve weeks the state could add legislation (Roe v. Wade). Some states allow abortions throughout pregnancy until the fetus was viable to live outside the womb. However, most states took control and limited abortions to only the first trimester. These early actions clearly showed state 's disapproval of the Roe v. Wade ruling. The ruling eventually lead to further court cases. The most notable being Planned Parenthood v. Casey in 1992. The outcome of the case kept abortion …show more content…
Women that want or need an abortion are unable to get one because of certain state legislation. Some states have begun to decrease the amount of time women have to have an abortion. The earliest that states have restricted abortions is at 20 weeks (Abortion Rights Restricted). Some citizens of these states have gone to court against the rulings and the restriction has been overturned in Arizona and Idaho as it was deemed as unconstitutional (Abortion Rights Restricted). The fact that the laws were overturned is not shocking because many of the laws were opinion based and not backed by scientific evidence. Part of the reason states wanted to decrease the age at which the fetus could be aborted was because they thought 20 weeks is when the fetus could feel pain (Abortion Rights Restricted). Putting aside whether this claim is scientifically based even if the fetus was able to feel the pain of being aborted, how would scientist be able to tell the fetus was in distress? Also, the idea of the fetus being able to feel pain could be easily avoided by the doctors by simply giving the fetus numbing or pain medication. These reasons may have lead to the reason why the state’s legislation of Arizona and Idaho were overturned. Decreasing the estimate of when the fetus is viable is only one of the actions that states have taken to increase restrictions on abortion. TRAP or targeted regulation of abortion