NO ABORTION!
Roe Versus Wade’s case of abortion in the US specifically in Texas has been the precedent since 1973. Jane Roe claimed she had all the rights to carry out an abortion but was not granted permission to because some laws were hindering her from terminating her pregnancy. Earlier on Friday 24th, 2022, the US supreme court ruled over the case and totally illegalized abortion saying there are no rights in the constitution that support abortion.
Jane Roe’s case came
about in 1969 when Roe got pregnant and wanted to terminate her pregnancy. She
was however not allowed to terminate it. Abortion back then in Texas was
illegal but could only be legal if it was for the purpose of saving the
mother’s life. Jane Roe's reasons for wanting to terminate the pregnancy were
that she was jobless, not married and she already had two children.
Jane Roe had her attorneys who filed a case to the US federal
court on her behalf against her local district attorney Henry Wade who had
denied Jane the right to abort saying that Texas abortion law was
unconstitutional.
In 1973, the US Supreme court ruled in her favor indicating that
the constitution provides a right to privacy, and with this, she won the case
but the delay had already made her give birth. The Supreme court however added
some other laws that would go hand with the first one. They included a
TRIMESTER rule that split the whole pregnancy period into three cycles.
The rules indicated that in the first trimester, from month one
to month three, the woman is allowed to abort and no prohibitions whatsoever
would come their way. In the second trimester that is month four to month six
the government required a legal and reasonable health regulation and in the
third trimester which is months seven to nine the woman was not allowed to
abort under any given condition.
The decision was not well accepted by the legal community as it
got criticized a lot. With the critics in hand, the Supreme court decided to
revisit the case in 1992 but reassured the fact that the woman’s decision to
carry out an abortion is constitutionally protected. The Supreme Court however abandoned
Roe’s trimester framework in favor of a standard based on fetal viability.
The final draft of the ruling on abortion leaked in June 2022
with presumptions that it would be overturned. The leak was not well absorbed
as many US citizens boycotted in unison saying, “My body my choice”.
The ruling has now been made and many countries will get
affected by the ruling. Kenya itself is among the affected countries. Some
Kenyan lawyers have been using the Roe V Wade theory to present their arguments
on abortion cases. An example is a case that took place in Malindi High Court
on March 24th, 2022. A minor had undergone an abortion through a
doctor. The lawyer that presented the two used Roe’s theory to argue in court.
With the ruling at hand, it will mean that no more arguments will be directed
in that direction.
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