Reply #3: I wonder how many realize that, essentially they support Roe v.Wade... [View All]

[Zenlitened]

... exactly as it's written?

The decision gave a woman total autonomy over the pregnancy during the first trimester and defined different levels of state interest for the second and third trimesters.

http://www.saveroe.com/content/index.php?pid=105

... In its ruling, the Supreme Court declared all but the least restrictive state statutes unconstitutional. Noting that early abortions had become safer than childbirth and reasoning that the word "person" in the Constitution "does not include the unborn," the Court defined the reciprocal limits of state power and individual freedom within each of the three stages of pregnancy:

1. During the first trimester, the abortion decision must be left to the medical judgment of the pregnant woman's attending physician, as well as the pregnant woman herself;

2. After the first trimester, the State, in promoting its interest in the health of the mother, may, if it chooses, regulate the abortion procedure in ways that are reasonably related to maternal health; and

3. For the stage subsequent to viability, the State, in promoting its interest in the potentiality of human life, may, if it chooses, regulate and even proscribe abortion, except where it is necessary, in appropriate medical judgment, for the preservation of the life or health of the mother.

... When weighing competing interests, the Court also noted that if the fetus was defined as a "person" for purposes of the Fourteenth Amendment then the fetus would have a specific right to life under that Amendment. However, given the relatively recent nature of abortion criminalization, the Court determined that the original intent of the Constitution up to the enactment of the Fourteenth Amendment in 1868 did not include the unborn. It should be noted that the Court's determination of whether a fetus can enjoy Constitutional protection is separate from the notion of when life begins. To that, the Court said, "We need not resolve the difficult question of when life begins. When those trained in the respective disciplines of medicine, philosophy, and theology are unable to arrive at any consensus, the judiciary, at this point in the development of man's knowledge, is not in a position to speculate as to the answer."

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roe_v._Wade