Source+2

//NFA//. (2010). Retrieved May 9, 2012, from http://www.prochoice.org/policy/courts/roe_v_wade.html

__Facts:__

 * The Court found that the 14th Amendment's guarantees of personal liberty and previous decisions protecting privacy in family matters included a woman's right to terminate her pregnancy.
 * This means that the decision to have an abortion is left in the hands of the woman and her health care provider.
 * Many laws that have been passed to restrict women's access to legal abortion fail the strict scrutiny test and are therefore invalidated or struck down.
 * One trimesters are about three months of the pregnancy, and employed a balancing test.
 * The Court was careful to balance the right of a woman seeking an abortion with the states' interest in protecting maternal health and the potential life of the fetus.
 * This means that a woman's right to an abortion could only be outweighed by a compelling state interest, and that the state law needed to be narrowly drawn so as not to interfere with a woman's right to an abortion more than necessary.
 * The court applied what is known as "strict scrutiny" analysis, the most stringent level of review.
 * During the last trimester, and after the fetus is viable (developed enough to survive outside the mother's womb), state laws and regulations may prohibit abortion except when it is necessary to preserve the life or health of the woman.
 * During the second trimester, state laws and regulations can regulate abortion in order to protect the woman's health.
 * The Court ruled that in the first trimester of pregnancy, state laws and regulations may not interfere with a woman's right to terminate a pregnancy.
 * To address competing interests and rights, the Court divided pregnancy into thirds - or "trimesters".
 * The Court also recognized that the state had valid interests in the health of the woman and the potential life of the fetus.
 * //Roe v. Wade// challenged a Texas law that prohibited abortions except to save a woman's life. At the time, many other states had similar laws. As a result, women had very restricted access to legal abortion.
 * Stacked with anti-choice witnesses, these hearings attempted to undermine the longstanding precedent of //Roe//, a decision 65% of Americans support.
 * In 2005 and 2006, both the House and Senate Judiciary Committees held hearings about //Roe v. Wade//.