Roe v Wade

The fight to end Roe v. Wade enters its endgame next week. Here's the History Behind It.

by Ian Millhiser

The Supreme Court could dismantle the constitutional right to an abortion, and all it has to do is sit on its hands.

Professor Rebecca Gordon Pens Essay Revealing Her Abortion and Examines Ongoing History of Roe v. Wade

by Rebecca Gordon

"We’ve been going backwards on abortion access for decades. Since 1976, the Hyde Amendment has denied abortion services to women who get their health care through the federal Medicaid program, or indeed to anyone whose health insurance is federally funded."

Women Have Fought to Legalize Reproductive Rights for Nearly Two Centuries

by Lauren MacIvor Thompson

The efforts of the second-wave feminist movement transformed older ideas of voluntary motherhood, which asserted that women both didn’t have to have sex or be pregnant, into the more radical notion that women could enjoy sex without fear of becoming pregnant.  

Clarence Thomas is Wrong: It’s Restrictions on Abortion that Echo America’s Eugenics Past

by Molly Ladd-Taylor and Johanna Schoen

The animating belief of eugenics—the state should control the reproduction of poor people, immigrants, and women of color—is central to current abortion politics.

What the Fugitive Slave Law Can Teach Us About Anti-Abortion Legislation

by Ed Simon

As the Fugitive Slave Act was motivated by an inhuman racism, so are these new laws mandating forced pregnancy defined by hideous misogyny.

How Democrats can win the abortion war: Talk about Roe's restrictions as well as rights

by Jonathan Zimmerman

Republicans are lying when they paint us as the party of death and infanticide. Fight back by championing both the right to abortion and limits on it.

We Don't Have to Imagine the Consequences of Abortion Bans. We Just Have to Look to the Past

by Leslie J. Reagan

Making abortion illegal never meant abortion didn’t happen. For the entire century of criminalized abortion, women of every class, marital status, religion and race still obtained them.

How Republicans Became Anti-Choice

by Sue Halpern

The documentary, "Reversing Roe," does an admirable job of teasing apart how the Republican Party used control of women’s bodies as political capital to shift the balance of power their way.

Why Conservatives Should Beware a Roe v. Wade Repeal

by Joshua Zeitz

Opposition to the famous court case empowered the Christian right. If the ruling is struck down, this time abortion rights activists will come out on top.

Roe v. Wade’s forgotten loser: The remarkable story of Dallas prosecutor Henry Wade

Henry Wade was a renowned Dallas prosecutor when the landmark abortion case bearing his name was decided by the Supreme Court in 1973.

Remembering an Era Before Roe, When New York Had the "Most Liberal" Abortion Law in the Nation

Three years before Roe v. Wade established a constitutional right to abortion, New York legalized the procedure in 1970, turning the state into a magnet for women who wanted to terminate their pregnancies.

Massachusetts Passes Repeal of 173-Year-Old Abortion Ban Amid Fears for Future of Roe v. Wade

It will make Massachusetts the first state to respond to the possibility that Roe v. Wade could be repealed or significantly weakened following the retirement of Justice Anthony Kennedy.

Indiana Authorities Said Their Abortion Law Was Designed to Protect Women

by Scott W. Stern

Given the state’s history, it’s clear the law was actually about controlling women.

When (and Why) Did Supreme Court Nomination Battles Become All about Roe v. Wade?

by Daniel K. Williams

For the first twenty years after Roe, Senate confirmation hearings were not polarizing conflicts over abortion rights. Here’s how that changed.

Overturning Roe v. Wade Could Remake American Politics

by Jonathan Zimmerman

The original decision gave conservatives a boost for decades. Overturning it could lead to a liberal resurgence.

A Brief History of Abortion Law in America

by Irin Carmon

It's only become a hot-button issue in recent decades. For America's first century, abortion wasn’t banned in a single US state.

Roll Back Roe v. Wade?

by Andrew Young

Here’s what America looked like when abortion was illegal.

The Pro-Life Movement’s Liberal Argument

by Daniel K. Williams

Pro-lifers have argued that in order for the state to protect women’s health – a goal that directly stems from the Progressive movement and that modern liberals often claim as their own – laws restricting allegedly unsafe abortion clinics are necessary.

Five Things You Think You Know about Roe v. Wade – But Actually Don’t

by Daniel K. Williams

The way that many Americans understand Roe v. Wade today - that is, as a liberal women’s rights decision that gave women throughout the United States immediate access to abortion – says more about the politics of a later era than the political situation of 1973.

Two Things You Don’t Know About Roe v. Wade that Will Surprise You

by James D. Robenalt

One of these two things changed American politics and not in a good way.