Roe v Wade: FULL Text (The Decision that wiped out an entire Generation 33 years ago today)

TouroLaw ^ | 1-22-73 | SCOTUS

[Third Order]

Abortion was legal in all 50 states prior to Roe v. Wade in cases of danger to the life of the woman.

I did not know that.

[Sun]

Myth: Roe v. Wade said the Constitution includes a right to abortion.

Fact: Yet even legal commentators who support legal abortion have said Roe is not good constitutional law.

Roe v. Wade is "a very bad decision.…because it is not constitutional law and gives almost no sense of an obligation to try to be."1
- John Hart Ely, Yale law professor

"As a matter of constitutional interpretation and judicial method, Roe borders on the indefensible…. [It is] one of the most intellectually suspect constitutional decisions of the modern era."2
- Edward Lazarus, former clerk to Justice Blackmun (who authored Roe)

"Since its inception Roe has had a deep legitimacy problem, stemming from its weakness as a legal opinion."3
- Benjamin Wittes, Washington Post legal affairs editorial writer

"One of the most curious things about Roe is that, behind its own verbal smokescreen, the substantive judgment on which it rests is nowhere to be found."4
- Laurence Tribe, Harvard law professor

1 "The Wages of Crying Wolf: A Comment on Roe v. Wade," 82 Yale L.J. 920-49 (1973) at 947.
2 "The Lingering Problems with Roe v. Wade," FindLaw's Writ, Oct. 3, 2002, http://writ.news.findlaw.com/lazarus/20021003.html.
3 "Letting Go of Roe," The Atlantic Monthly, January/February 2005, p. 48.
4 "Toward a Model of Roles in the Due Process of Life and Law," 87 Harv.L.Rev. 1 (1973) at 7.




__________________________
Secretariat for Pro-Life Activities
United States Conference of Catholic Bishops
3211 4th Street, N.E., Washington, DC 20017-1194 (202) 541-3070

http://www.usccb.org/prolife/realitycheck4.htm

[Rca2000]

I hope Blackmum is now getting his reward, for being responsible for more killings than Hitler ever dreamed of!!

[bigsigh]

Was wondering how Roe wiped out an entire generation?

[railsplitter]

It may be more a case of editorial license, by expressing 'a whole generation', however, in describing 42 million plus, killings/deaths, the editor provides a reference for the staggering total... I prefer holocaust or abomination... In the end, right, wrong or indifferent, the culture of death is a plague upon this nation, where life is cheap and means less/little to the society as a whole. Ye shall reap what ye sow.

[bigsigh]

Oh I agree, that abortion is murder. I like precise language and wish more people who get paid to write would pay attention.

[Simo Hayha]

The wheel's still in spin. Hyperbolic sub-title, though the irony will come when the culture of death continues to grow and the "quality of life" takes those that survived abortion to find themselves aborted in old age by a younger generation who believe they are doing a service to their elders.

[newfarm4000n]

I would rather blame the women who actually get the abortion..you know like INDIVIDUAL RESPONSIBILITY . But I guess many conservatives would find that hard since many of these women end up going to church to heal their lives and contribute lots of Tithe revenues. It amazes me how even conservative bible believing churches treat a woman who has had an abortion as a "victim" but a convicted murderer would be viewed with EXTREME suspicion.

[Theodore R.]

Public opinion polls show that a majority of Americans still support Roe even if they are ignorant of its actual contents. Sometimes Republicans get nervous of upsetting this supposed majority. But nothing really changes. It seems that many oppose abortion in principle but support it in practice.

[Theodore R.]

Actually, we in churches do not know who has had an abortion and who has not. No one asks such questions. God will forgive, but Nature never forgets.

[Theodore R.]

Remember Harry Blackmun was supposedly a staunch Republican chosen for the high court by one Richard M. Nixon. Nixon supported Roe, and his successor Ford did (does) too.

[Sun]

While it would be impossible to identify the women and circumstances of every legal abortion death since 1973, newspaper reports reveal many stories. It is doubtful that any of the women who died from legal abortion realized that this procedure would result in their death. In remembrance of the women who have died from legal abortion since 1973, here are a few of their stories:

Partial List of Known Abortion Deaths

Tamiia Russell, 15, died January 8, 2004 in Detroit, MI
Russell was six months pregnant when she died after complications from a second-trimester abortion. Following the abortion, "Russell developed heavy vaginal bleeding and died," according to a Wayne County autopsy. The abortionist at the Woman Care Clinic in Lathrup Village did not seek the consent of Russell’s parents as state laws requires for those under 18 years of age. Russell’s family hired an attorney to consider legal action against the abortion clinic.2

Holly Patterson, 18, died September 17, 2003 in Pleasanton, CA
Patterson died at a local hospital one week after receiving the chemical abortion drug, mifepristone (also known as RU-486), from a Planned Parenthood affiliate. She was seven weeks pregnant. The Alameda, California coroner’s office reports that Patterson died from septic shock, caused by a “therapeutic, drug-induced abortion.” The U.S. Food and Drug Administration is investigating her death.3

Diana Lopez, 25, died February 28, 2002 in Los Angeles, CA
Lopez was 18 weeks pregnant when she went to the Los Angeles Planned Parenthood for an abortion by Dr. Mark Maltzer. According to the Los Angeles County Coroner’s Office, “she bled to death after her cervix was punctured during her abortion.” She died at a nearby hospital after an emergency hysterectomy. Lopez’ family is suing Planned Parenthood and Maltzer on behalf of her two living children.4

http://www.family.org/cforum/fosi/bi...n/a0026837.cfm

ABORTION: One dead; one wounded.

But sometimes more than one dies because of abortion.

[Sun]

FATHER PAVONE:
How did your position on this change?
NORMA:
Well, I had already been attacking, if you could use that word, in a gentle way, the abortionist that I worked for. He's a very greedy man, a selfish man. And we would have patients that would come in and say, Well, I found out, I had all these tests and I found out that my baby is going to have a cleft palate. I'm going like, that's not a reason. That's just an excuse. And the doctor would do the abortion, he would do and charge women money and not even do an abortion. He would lie to them and tell them that they were pregnant. So, seeing him and watching him every Thursday through Saturday do the abortions, making the appointments, for not good reasons. I mean, of course, I don't think there is a good reason for an abortion, but Dr. Jasper made me really realize that it was just a racket. You know, he was just doing it for the money. He didn't care about the women, he didn't care if they got their two week checkups. You know, he didn't care if they had their medications. You know, I mean he never told them you know, like when you have to get this, and this, and this. And it's essential that you take it. He didn't care.

excerpt

http://www.priestsforlife.org/testimony/normapflinterview.htm

It's all about money.

[newfarm4000n]

Actually, we in churches do not know who has had an abortion and who has not. No one asks such questions. God will forgive, but Nature never forgets

I have heard a few testimonies where the woman has mentioned it and the congregation goes "awwwww".

[se_ohio_young_conservative]

abortion is murder. May God have mercy on us,

[Rca2000]

Not THIS Conservative. I do blame the women. I feel that they CAN be forgiven for that, however. I TOTALLY have NO sympathy to those who profess to be "Christians" and still support abortion(with reasonable exceptions, as life of mother, of course. but that is about IT!!)

I don't really care if Blackmum professed to be a conservative or not. He was responsible for the decision and so was Nixon. They ALL have blood on their hands!!

[cgk]

Thank you for posting that! Here is another criticism of Roe by a pro-choice liberal judge (that's an awfully nice way to describe her, isn't it?):

Ruth Bader Ginsburg — Associate Justice of the U.S. Supreme Court

“Roe, I believe, would have been more acceptable as a judicial decision if it had not gone beyond a ruling on the extreme statute before the court. … Heavy-handed judicial intervention was difficult to justify and appears to have provoked, not resolved, conflict.”

North Carolina Law Review, 1985

With thanks to FReeper DnDmSb (heh) for the original link:

Pro-Choice Criticisms of Roe

[cgk]

Some pro-life critics of the pro-abortion movement and Roe frame the discussion of its ramifications on our society as "the loss of a generation". Here are but 2 of those articles, The lost generation: 31 years of Roe v Wade, and The Life of Roe.

The latter frames it well, and carries this poignant line:

"Because their lives were incomplete, those of us who escaped Roe's reach are also incomplete. We have lost something immeasurable — the dreams and hopes of an unseen, unborn generation. "

It is my belief that this assessment of Roe as the elimination of a generation is correct. I am not a statistician, so do not know the exact count of a generation of people, but having lived under Roe my whole life, I cannot help but wonder of the 40+ million unborn who were not allowed to live, what of their own future unborn children and theirs, and so on? Is this not the make-up of a generation?

[cgk]

If you read Mark Steyn, you will know and understand the demographic implications of killing off two generations of your populace.

Yes... and I do. And I hope to see the end of this abomination in my lifetime. Unless Someone higher Up has other plans.

[cgk]

Thank you, Mr. S, for pinging this out.