The Supreme Court Case Of Norma L. Mccovey

In 1973 one of the most historic, controversial, and strange cases was being heard in the Supreme Court about the extremely sensitive issue known as abortion. In this case Norma L McCovey, also known as Jane Roe, was suing the state of Texas for not allowing her to have an abortion on her unwanted child. At the time abortion was considered a common law crime, and unfortunately many women, being forced to extremes, were attempting to have illegal abortions known as, “Clothes hanger abortions” that were extremely dangerous to perform. At the end of the case, the court ruled in a 7-2 vote that Roe was entitled to an abortion and that the state of Texas and any other state outlawing abortions must change their rules. The court defended their ruling by siting the 14th amendment of the constitution and stating “That a right to privacy under the due process clause extended to a woman 's decision to have an abortion.(1)” The courts also felt that this right had to be balanced by the states right to protect the life of the unborn baby, the longer the pregnancy has lasted the stronger states’ rights will become. A test was created by the court system in order to determine whether the woman’s right to an abortion were stronger than the states right to protect the life of the unborn baby. They said that in the first trimester it was the woman’s right to choose what she wanted. In the second semester it depended on the situation such as if it were rape or if the pregnancy would put the mom’s life at risk. In the third trimester the state has the ability to protect the life of the unborn baby. Leading up to this court case Norma McCovey had been …show more content…
At age 16 she was married for the first time to Woody McCovey but later left him after he abused her. She then moved in with her mom and had her first child. Soon after she moved in with her mom, Norma developed a drinking problem and began to identify herself as a lesbian. Norma’s mom, thinking that Norma wasn’t a responsible mother tricked Norma into signing away custody of her son and then kicked her out of her house. One year later Norma once again became pregnant, and placed the child up for adoption. At the age of 21 while working low wage jobs Norma became pregnant again. She decided that she would try to have an abortion, so she claimed that she was raped but because there was no police report she couldn’t have the operation. She then tried to have an illegal abortion but was unsuccessful at that too because the police had shut down every place performing them. When applying for adoption she was referred to two ambitious lawyers, Linda Coffee and Sarah Weddington who were eager to make a name for themselves in law.(2) After the verdict of Roe vs Wade, Norma lived a quiet life in Texas with her long time lesbian partner, Connie Gonzales. She recently released a book called, “I am Roe” where Norma expresses her remorse for her part in the Roe vs Wade court case. She claims to now be prolife activist and recently petitioned to have the verdict of Roe vs Wade overturned in the court case McCorvey vs Hill, which was denied because her case was