Roe v. Wade

Impact

On a personal level, the case in fact had no impact on the outcome of its plantiff's pregnancy; Norma McCorvey wrote in her autobiography I Am Roe: My Life, Roe v. Wade, and Freedom of Choice that she learned of the decision only upon reading about it in the newspaper at home the following day. After more than two decades lobbying in favor of abortion rights, she experienced a religious conversion in 1995 and shifted her efforts to antiabortion causes.

The uniform legalization of abortion, of course, had far-reaching political and social consequences. The 1973 ruling galvanized the nation's political and religious right wing, sparking the formation of the National Right to Life Committee that same year. Under President Ronald Reagan, a Republican Party platform plank called for a constitutional amendment banning abortions, but the issue was a low priority during the Reagan administration. Antiabortion forces gained traction with the 1988 election of George H.W. Bush—who, ironically, began his political career as a supporter of Planned Parenthood. His successor, Bill Clinton, vetoed several attempts to further restrict abortion, but the 2000 election of President George W. Bush put abortion policies—and nominations for Supreme Court justices—back under right-wing control.

The issue of abortion was indeed revealed to be far from settled as the composition of the Supreme Court evolved. Subsequent decisions barred the use of public hospitals and clinics for abortions and upheld certain restrictions that were held not to impose undue burdens on women. On April 18, 2007, the Court voted to uphold a ban on the late-term abortion procedure of intact dilation and extraction, also known as partial-birth abortion, in Gonzales v. Carhart.

Estimates hold that in the years following Roe v. Wade, up to 1.6 million women per year underwent surgical abortions in the United States. As of the mid-1990s, an estimated one-fifth of American women over the age of fifteen had had an abortion. In 2006 the Food and Drug Administration approved over-the-counter access to Plan B emergency contraception, which is taken after intercourse to prevent the implantation of a fertilized egg. Whether this advancement would result in decreases in the numbers of surgical abortions was uncertain.