The Texas abortion ban, known as Senate Bill 8 (SB 8), went into effect on September 1st, 2021. According to the Center for Reproductive Rights, Texas is considered a “hostile” state for abortion, there are civil and criminal penalties if a known abortion is performed. It bans abortions after 6 weeks of pregnancy however, most women do not know that they are pregnant at 6 weeks. This ban happened nine months before Roe v. Wade was overturned by the United States Supreme Court. Roe v. Wade was the 1973 Supreme Court case that legalized abortion in the United States. The case was originally brought by Norma McCorvey to the Supreme Court, she went by the name Jane Roe. In 1969, McCorvey became pregnant with her third child, but she lived in Texas and was unable to get an abortion because at the time it was illegal in the state unless necessary to save the mothers life. McCorvey’s lawyers, (2 women) filed a lawsuit on her behalf saying that the Texas abortion laws were unconstitutional. In 2022, the overturn of Roe v. Wade ended the federal constitutional right to an abortion and allowing the regulation of abortion up to individual states. In January 1973, the Supreme Court issued a 7-2 decision, ruling in McCorvey’s favor. The Due Process Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment gives women a right to privacy, which protected their right to abortion. The Fourteenth Amendment states, “No State shall make or enforce any law which shall abridge the privileges or immunities of citizens of the United States; nor shall any State deprive any person of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law; nor deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws.” 49 years later the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade in the Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization casw. There was a Mississippi law that banned most abortions after 15 weeks of pregnancy. The law was challenged because it went against the protections set by Roe v. Wade which allowed abortions up to 24 weeks. Jackson Women’s Health Organization was […]
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