Roe v. Wade
Subtitle: the abortion rights controversy in American history
By: N.E.H. Hull and Peter Charles Hoffer.
Contributors: Hoffer, Peter Charles, 1944-
Series: Landmark law cases & American society
Publisher: University Press of Kansas
Published: 2001
Place of publication: Lawrence, Kan
Language: eng
Number of pages: 315
Subjects: Roe, Jane, 1947- -- Trials, litigation, etc.; Wade, Henry -- Trials, litigation, etc.; Trials (Abortion) -- Washington (D.C.); Abortion -- Law and legislation -- United States -- History.
Genres: Trials, litigation, etc.
Other titles: Roe versus Wade
Description: Looking back 200 years to the first state laws & forward to a political climate that threatens Roe's future legal status, this book combines a close & accessible analysis of the debates with a broad understanding of what is at stake politically & culturally. Giving due respect to both sides of the conflict, the authors effectively trace and analyze the core debates, examine the case's unique history, clarify the jurisprudence behind the Court's ruling, and gauge its impact on American society. Of special note is their revealing account of how the Court attempted to steer a middle course by rejecting both abortion on demand and the absolute right to life and yet, in the end, wound up igniting a firestorm of protest instead. Unlike other accounts of Roe, this one examines the complete social and legal context of the case. Hull and Hoffer review more than a century of abortion practice (and abuse), common-law views on abortion, nineteenth-century criminalization measures, and the rapid changes in science, public mores, and civil rights that finally brought the issue before the Supreme Court. They also trace abortion law through the twentieth century, reprise the 1965 case of Griswold v. Connecticut, in which the Supreme Court overturned a state law against contraceptives, and reexamine the highly publicized attempts to reverse Roe in Webster v. Reproductive Services (1989) and Casey v. Planned Parenthood (1992).
Notes: Includes bibliographical references (p. 287-297) and index.
Table of contents: title: Abortion becomes a crime, 1800-1900; title: Abortion and birth control, 1900-1965; title: From repression to reform, the road to Roe, 1960-1970; title: The decision in Roe, 1971-1973; title: Roe under siege, 1973-1988; title: The two Roes, 1989-1992; title: Epilogue : Roe in the Clinton years, 1993-2000.