- Hezbollah heir apparent Safieddine out of contact after strikes
- Liverpool stay top of Premier League as Arsenal, Man City win
- In dank Tour of Emilia, Pogacar shines in rainbow jersey
- DR Congo launches mpox vaccination drive, hoping to curb outbreak
- Trump returns to site of failed assassination
- Careless Leverkusen held to Bundesliga draw
- O'Brien's 'superstar' Kyprios posts landmark win on Arc weekend
- Liverpool suffer Alisson injury blow
- Habosi helps Racing beat Vannes before Auradou's playing return
- Thousands march in London in support of Palestinians, 1 year after Oct 7
- Israel readying response to Iran missile attack
- Schutt, Mooney help Australia beat Sri Lanka in Women's T20 World Cup
- Liverpool extend Premier League lead with win at Palace
- Djokovic 'shakes rust off' to make third round of Shanghai Masters
- 'Imperfect' PSG fighting on all fronts - Luis Enrique
- Struggling Pakistan look to thwart adaptable England
- Child 'trampled to death' in asylum seekers' Channel crossing: minister
- Gauff fights back to set up Beijing final against Muchova
- Guardiola claims Premier League won't delay season for Man City
- Israel to mark October 7 attack as Gaza war spreads
- Gauff fights back to reach China Open final
- Recovering Stokes ruled out of first Pakistan Test
- Hezbollah battles troops on border as Israel pounds Lebanon
- Alcaraz, Sinner breeze into third round of Shanghai Masters
- Bagnaia wins Japan MotoGP sprint to cut Martin's lead
- Alcaraz breezes into third round of Shanghai Masters
- Gaza cultural heritage brought to light in Geneva
- 'Bullet for democracy': Trump returns to site of rally shooting
- Italy targets climate activists in 'anti-Gandhi' demo clampdown
- South Korean cult-horror series 'Hellbound' returns at BIFF
- Nepalis fear more floods as climate change melts glaciers
- Honduras arrests environmentalist's alleged murderer
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- Supreme Court lets stand rules to curb mercury, methane emissions
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- Chagos diaspora angry at lack of input on islands' fate
- Biden says 'not confident' of peaceful US election
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- Lukaku stars as Napoli beat Como to hold Serie A top spot
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- Devine leads New Zealand to big win over India in Women's T20 World Cup
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- EU court blocks French ban on vegetable 'steak' labelling
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- MLB Reds hire two-time champion Francona as manager
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- US dockworkers return to ports after three-day strike
Roe v. Wade: 1973 case that enshrined US abortion rights
A US Supreme Court draft opinion leaked to the press on Monday suggests a majority of justices are ready to overturn the landmark Roe v. Wade, shredding nearly 50 years of constitutional protections on abortion rights.
Here is how the original 1973 court case played out.
- Right to privacy -
On January 22, 1973, the court decided that the constitutional right to privacy applied to abortion.
Roe was "Jane Roe," a pseudonym for Norma McCorvey, a single mother pregnant for the third time, who wanted an abortion.
She sued the Dallas attorney general, Henry Wade, over a Texas law that made it a crime to terminate a pregnancy except in cases of rape or incest, or when the mother's life was in danger.
Filing a complaint alongside her was Texas doctor James Hallford, who argued the law's medical provision was vague, and that he was unable to reliably determine which of his patients fell into the allowed category.
The "Does," another couple, childless, also filed a companion complaint, saying that medical risks made it unsafe but not life-threatening for the wife to carry a pregnancy to term, and arguing they should be able to obtain a safe, legal abortion should she become pregnant.
The trifecta of complaints -- from a woman who wanted an abortion, a doctor who wanted to perform them and a non-pregnant woman who wanted the right if the need arose -- ultimately reached the nation's top court.
The court heard arguments twice, and then waited until after Republican president Richard Nixon's re-election, in November 1972.
- 'Sensitive and emotional' controversy -
Only the following January did it offer its historic seven-to-two decision -- overturning the Texas laws and setting a legal precedent that has had ramifications in all 50 states.
Justice Harry Blackmun, writing for the majority, said the court recognized the "sensitive and emotional nature of the abortion controversy, of the vigorous opposing views, even among physicians, and of the deep and seemingly absolute convictions that the subject inspires."
But he argued that the "right of privacy... is broad enough to encompass a woman's decision whether or not to terminate her pregnancy."
"A state criminal abortion statute of the current Texas type, that excepts from criminality only a lifesaving 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," the ruling read.
But the top court agreed with lower court rulings that the right to privacy with regard to pregnancy "is not absolute, and is subject to some limitations."
"At some point, the state interests as to protection of health, medical standards and prenatal life become dominant," Blackmun wrote.
The top court thus ruled partially against the doctor and the Does, but in favor of Jane Roe, who has since become a pro-life activist.
On the same day, the justices ruled in the separate "Doe v. Bolton" case, which authorized each state to add restrictions to abortion rights for later-term pregnancies.
The constitutional right to abortion was later confirmed in a number of decisions, including "Webster v. Reproductive Health Services" in 1989, "Planned Parenthood v. Casey" in 1992 and Stenberg v. Carhart" in 2000.
E.Ramalho--PC