Roe v. Wade: Important Passages

 I. The Court decides the fetus is not a person within the protection of the 14th Amendment.

 Personhood:

Page 629:  "The appellee and certain amici argue that the fetus is a “person” within the language and meaning of the Fourteenth Amendment. In support of this they outline at length  and   in  detail  the  well-known  facts  of  fetal  development.  If  this  suggestion  of personhood is established, the appellant’s case, of course, collapses, for the fetus’ right to life is then guaranteed specifically by the Amendment."

Page 630-631: 

"Texas urges that, apart from the Fourteenth Amendment, life begins at conception
and is present throughout pregnancy, and that, therefore, the State has a compelling
interest in protecting that life from and after conception. We need not resolve the
difficult question of when life begins. When those trained in the respective disciplines of
medicine, philosophy, and theology are unable to arrive at any consensus, the judiciary,
at this point in the development of man’s knowledge, is not in a position to speculate as
to the answer."

"In view of all this, we do not agree that, by adopting one theory of life, Texas may
override the rights of the pregnant woman that are at stake. We repeat, however, that
the State does have an... important and legitimate interest in protecting the potentiality of human life."

Did the Court decide the issue of personhood? Did the Court hold that the fetus may not be treated as a person, as an actual human life, but only a a non-person, as at most a potential human life? 

II. But is there a right to abortion? If so, where in the Constitution is that right situated?

Page 628: "This right of privacy, whether it be founded in the Fourteenth Amendment’s
concept of personal liberty and restrictions upon state action, as we feel it is, or, as the
District Court determined, in the Ninth Amendment’s reservation of rights to the
people, is broad enough to encompass a woman’s decision whether or not to terminate
her pregnancy."

Maybe it is here, maybe it is there. But we feel it is here!

So, the fetus is not a person (and the state-created right to life is disparaged and rejected by the Court), and a pregnant woman has a right somewhere in the Constitution to choose abortion. This right is a fundamental right so strict scrutiny applies.

Thus we get the 3-part Trimester test. See pages 631-633.

Page 632-633:

"To summarize and to repeat:
1.     A state criminal abortion statute of the current Texas type, that excepts from criminality  
only  a  life  saving  procedure  on  behalf  of  the  mother,  without  regard  to pregnancy stage
and without recognition of the other interests involved, is violative of the Due Process Clause of
the Fourteenth Amendment.
(a)    For the stage prior to approximately the end of the first trimester, the abortion decision
and its effectuation must be left to the medical judgment of the pregnant woman’s attending
physician.
(b)    For the stage subsequent to approximately the end of the first trimester, the State, in
promoting its interest in the health of the mother, may, if it chooses, regulate the abortion
procedure in ways that are reasonably related to maternal health.
(c)    For the stage subsequent to viability the State, in promoting its interest
in the potentiality of human life, may, if it chooses, regulate, and even proscribe, abortion except where it is necessary, in appropriate medical judgment, for the preservation of the life or health of the mother."