Speaker 1: Welcome to brain Stuff, a production of iHeart Radio, Hey
Speaker 1: brain Stuff Lauren vogebam here. The United States Supreme Court
Speaker 1: recently overturned its N three decision in Roe v. Wade,
Speaker 1: thus ending national rights to access some types of abortions.
Speaker 1: This news has kicked off protests and calls to codify
Speaker 1: abortion access in law across the country. Today, let's look
Speaker 1: at the case of Roe v. Wade, what it decided
Speaker 1: and how it was overturned. Jane Rowe was a pseudonym
Speaker 1: for Norma McCorvey, a pregnant single woman in Texas who
Speaker 1: was unable to get an abortion because state law barred
Speaker 1: abortion in most instances except when a woman's life was
Speaker 1: at risk. McCorvey's life was not in danger, but she
Speaker 1: also couldn't afford to travel outside of Texas to have
Speaker 1: an abortion. She claimed that the Texas law violated her
Speaker 1: constitutional right to privacy. The Wade in the case refers
Speaker 1: to Henry Wade, a Dallas County District attorney. Rowe, who
Speaker 1: remained anonymous throughout the lawsuit was joined by a Texas
Speaker 1: physician who argued that the laws were too vague for
Speaker 1: care providers to follow. Previously, he had been arrested for
Speaker 1: violating the laws. The lawsuit argued that Rowe had a
Speaker 1: right to obtain an abortion. A federal court in Texas
Speaker 1: agreed with her, ruling that the Texas ban was unconstitutional,
Speaker 1: but once the case reached the Supreme Court, the issues
Speaker 1: involved seemed so complex that the court actually had both
Speaker 1: sides present arguments twice, in December of nineteen seventy one
Speaker 1: and again in October of nineteen seventy two. The Court
Speaker 1: reviewed the case for two full years, weighing biological, ethical,
Speaker 1: and religious arguments in addition to constitutional issues. Ultimately, the
Speaker 1: justices ruled seven to two in favor of Row. All
Speaker 1: the justice as were men. The first woman wouldn't be
Speaker 1: appointed to the Supreme Court until Sandra Day O'Connor began
Speaker 1: serving almost a decade later. In four Roe v. Wade,
Speaker 1: Justice Harry Blackman wrote the majority opinion, which argued that
Speaker 1: five of the constitutional amendments combined to create a zone
Speaker 1: of privacy around certain personal decisions like marriage and contraception,
Speaker 1: and that banning all abortions violated that right to make
Speaker 1: a personal and private decision about whether or not to
Speaker 1: have a child. Those amendments that he referenced were the
Speaker 1: First Amendment, which guarantees personal freedoms, the fourth, which protects
Speaker 1: citizens from unreasonable surge and seizure, the fifth, which guarantees
Speaker 1: due process of the law before any citizen may be
Speaker 1: deprived of life or liberty, the ninth, which specifically doesn't
Speaker 1: limit a person's rights to what's in the Constitution, and
Speaker 1: the fourteenth, which prevents individual states from infringing on American
Speaker 1: citizens rights to due process and their stuff like equal
Speaker 1: protection under the law. However, Blackman also wrote that the
Speaker 1: right to privacy had to be balanced with the government's
Speaker 1: interest in protecting potential human life, and to strike that balance,
Speaker 1: the Court decided that it was up to a woman
Speaker 1: and her doctor to choose whether or not to do
Speaker 1: an abortion in the first trimester of pregnancy. This barred
Speaker 1: states from provoking a woman's right to terminate a pregnancy
Speaker 1: in the first trimester for any reason. In the second trimester,
Speaker 1: states had the authority to regulate abortions. During the third trimester,
Speaker 1: a once a fetus reached the point of viability, that is,
Speaker 1: the ability to survive outside of the womb, the state
Speaker 1: could restrict or ban abortion, except in instances where it
Speaker 1: was necessary to protect a woman's life and health. Because
Speaker 1: the case took years to decide. Before the verdict came down,
Speaker 1: mccorby gave birth and put her child up for adoption.
Speaker 1: She later changed her views on abortion and joined the
Speaker 1: pro life side, though in a documentary released mccorby says
Speaker 1: she only did so for the money. She died before
Speaker 1: the documentary was released in but back to the court
Speaker 1: in a second Supreme Court decision, a Planned Parenthood of
Speaker 1: Southeastern Pennsylvania v. Casey, narrowly upheld Row by a five
Speaker 1: to four decision, but the court also scrapped the trimester
Speaker 1: framework and found that legal restrictions on abortion were acceptable
Speaker 1: as long as they didn't place an undue burden upon women.
Speaker 1: Rowe remained the law of the land for nearly half
Speaker 1: a century, but the balance of the Supreme Court began
Speaker 1: to change when Senate Republicans blocked Democratic President Barack Obama's
Speaker 1: nomination of Merrick Garland to the Court and held open
Speaker 1: the seat, thus enabling Obama's successor, Republican Donald Trump, to
Speaker 1: dominate Neil Gorrish for the seat. In republic Kins approved
Speaker 1: to other Trump appointees, giving conservatives a six to three
Speaker 1: control of the Court. Then, in early May of two,
Speaker 1: a leaked draft of an opinion by Justice Samuel Alito
Speaker 1: in a case called Dabbs v. Jackson Women's Health Organization
Speaker 1: indicated that this conservative majority was ready to overturn Roe
Speaker 1: and Casey. This new case concerned Mississippi's ban on abortion
Speaker 1: after fifteen weeks. Dabbs is the name of a state
Speaker 1: health officer. Two months after the leaked draft, on June two,
Speaker 1: the Court officially affirmed Mississippi's ban on abortion by a
Speaker 1: six to three vote in the Dabbs case, and it
Speaker 1: furthermore overturned Row by narrower five to four margin. Justice Alito,
Speaker 1: writing on behalf of Justice's Gorge Clarence Thomas, Brett Covana
Speaker 1: and Amy Coney Barrett, found that Rowe had been quote
Speaker 1: egregiously wrong and deeply damaging, and that abortion was not
Speaker 1: to right protected either explicitly or implicitly in the Constitution.
Speaker 1: That due process clause of the Fourteenth Amendment, he wrote,
Speaker 1: has been held to guarantee some rights that are not
Speaker 1: mentioned in the Constitution, but any such right must be
Speaker 1: deeply rooted in this nation's history and tradition. And implicit
Speaker 1: in the concept of ordered liberty. The right to abortion
Speaker 1: does not fall within this category. Whether that's historically correct
Speaker 1: is a matter of research that's out of the scope
Speaker 1: of this episode. Because our understanding of the human body
Speaker 1: and reproduction has advanced so much in the past few
Speaker 1: hundred years. We only started to understand how sperm and eggs,
Speaker 1: and conception and the growth of a baby all work
Speaker 1: when researchers first proposed cell theory in the late eighteen thirties,
Speaker 1: a full fifty years after the Constitution was written. But
Speaker 1: this ruling means that each state can set its own
Speaker 1: abortion laws, and almost half the states in the Union
Speaker 1: are likely to restrict or outlaw abortion under their current
Speaker 1: elected officials. The end of Row has provoked a political firestorm,
Speaker 1: but it could be just the start of an even
Speaker 1: more bitter battle. Justice Thomas, in his concurring opinion, indicated
Speaker 1: that the Court should use their reasoning from Dabbs to
Speaker 1: re examine other precedents, including the right to access contraception
Speaker 1: from Griswold v. Connecticut, the freedom to engage in consensual
Speaker 1: sexual intimacy from Lawrence v. Texas, and the right to
Speaker 1: same sex marriage from a Burghafel v. Hodges. Today's episode
Speaker 1: is based on the articles you know these seven Supreme
Speaker 1: Court cases by name, But what did they decide? Written
Speaker 1: by Dave Rus and Thirteen Overturned Supreme Court Cases written
Speaker 1: by Ed Grebanowski and Melanie red Seki McManus, both appearing
Speaker 1: on House to works dot Com. The brain Stuff is
Speaker 1: production by Heart Radio in partnership with how stuff works
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