Womens Reproductive Rights and the US Constitution

Womens Reproductive Rights and the US Constitution Limits on reproductive rights and decisions by women were mostly covered by state laws in the US until the last half of the 20th century when the Supreme Court began to make some decisions in court cases about pregnancy, birth control, and abortion. Following are key decisions in constitutional history about womens control over their reproduction. 1965: Griswold v. Connecticut In Griswold v. Connecticut, the Supreme Court found a right to marital privacy in choosing to use birth control, invalidating state laws that prohibited the use of birth control by married persons. 1973: Roe v. Wade In historic Roe v. Wade decision, the Supreme Court held that in the earlier months of pregnancy, a woman, in consultation with her doctor, could choose to have an abortion without legal restrictions, and could also make the choice with some restrictions later in pregnancy. The basis for the decision was the right to privacy, a right inferred from the Fourteenth Amendment. The case, Doe v. Bolton, was also decided that day, calling into question criminal abortion statutes. 1974: Geduldig v. Aiello Geduldig v. Aiello looked at a states disability insurance system which excluded temporary absences from work due to pregnancy disability and found that normal pregnancies did not have to be covered by the system. 1976: Planned Parenthood v. Danforth The Supreme Court found that spousal consent laws for abortions (in this case, in the third trimester) were unconstitutional because the pregnant womans rights were more compelling than her husbands. The Court did uphold that regulations requiring the womans full and informed consent were constitutional. 1977: Beal v. Doe, Maher v. Roe, and Poelker v. Doe In these abortion cases, the Court found that states were not required to use public funds for elective abortions. 1980: Harris v. Mcrae The Supreme Court upheld the Hyde Amendment, which excluded Medicaid payments for all abortions, even those that were found to be medically necessary. 1983: Akron v. Akron Center for Reproductive Health, Planned Parenthood v. Ashcroft, and Simopoulos v. Virginia In these cases, the Court struck down state regulations designed to dissuade women from abortion, requiring physicians to give advice that the physician might not agree with. The Court also struck down a waiting period for informed consent and a requirement that abortions after the first trimester be performed in licensed acute-care hospitals. The Court upheld, in Simopoulos v. Virginia, limiting second-trimester abortions to licensed facilities. 1986: Thornburgh v. American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists The Court as asked by the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists to issue an injunction on enforcement of a new anti-abortion law in Pennsylvania; the administration of President Reagan asked the Court to overturn Roe v. Wade in their decision. The Court upheld Roe on the basis of womens rights, but not on the basis of physicians rights. 1989: Webster v. Reproductive Health Services In the case of Webster v. Reproductive Health Services, the Court upheld some limits on abortions, including prohibiting the involvement of public facilities and public employees in performing abortions except to save the life of the mother, prohibiting counseling by public employees that might encourage abortions and requiring viability tests on fetuses after the 20th week of pregnancy. But the Court also stressed that it was not ruling on the Missouri statement about life beginning at conception, and was not overturning the essence of the Roe v. Wade decision. 1992: Planned Parenthood of Southeastern Pennsylvania v. Casey In Planned Parenthood v. Casey, the court upheld both the constitutional right to have an abortion and some restrictions on abortions, while still upholding the essence of Roe v. Wade. The test on restrictions was moved from the heightened scrutiny standard established under Roe v. Wade and instead moved to looking at whether a restriction put an undue burden on the mother. The court struck down a provision requiring spousal notice and upheld other restrictions. 2000: Stenberg v. Carhart The Supreme Court found a law making partial-birth abortion was unconstitutional, violating the Due Process Clause (5th and 14th Amendments). 2007: Gonzales v. Carhart The Supreme Court upheld the federal Partial-Birth Abortion Ban Act of 2003, applying the undue burden test.