Ruling in Roe v. Wade, on January 22, 1973, the majority opinion declared that “the right of personal privacy includes the abortion decision, but that this right is not unqualified and must be considered against important state interests in regulation.”
The question presented was:
Whether “[s]tate criminal abortion laws, like those involved here, that except from criminality only a life-saving procedure on the mother’s behalf without regard to the stage of her pregnancy and other interests involved violate the Due Process Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment.”
The opinion
Read the full rulingPDF · 2.06 MBPublished by the Library of Congress.
Oral argument
Listen at OyezOffsiteThe Court's own audio archive begins with the 2010 term, so this argument is held by Oyez rather than by supremecourt.gov.
