Wade Quotes - page 4
The seven to two judgment in Roe v. Wade declared "violative of the Due Process Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment” a Texas criminal abortion statute that intolerably shackled a woman's autonomy; the Texas law "except[ed] from criminality only a life-saving procedure on behalf of the [pregnant woman].” Suppose the Court had stopped there, rightly declaring unconstitutional the most extreme brand of law in the nation, and had not gone on, as the Court did in Roe, to fashion a regime blanketing the subject, a set of rules that displaced virtually every state law then in force. Would there have been the twenty-year controversy we have witnessed, reflected most recently in the Supreme Court's splintered decision in Planned Parenthood v. Casey? A less encompassing Roe, one that merely struck down the extreme Texas law and went no further on that day, I believe and will summarize why, might have served to reduce rather than to fuel controversy.
Ruth Bader Ginsburg
The story is told of the elderly judge who, looking back over a long career, observes with satisfaction that, when I was young, I probably let stand some convictions that should have been overturned, and when I was old I probably set aside some that should have stood; so overall, justice was done. I sometimes think that is an appropriate analogy to this Court's constitutional jurisprudence, which alternately creates rights that the Constitution does not contain and denies rights that it does. Compare Roe v. Wade, 410 U.S. 113 (1973) (right to abortion does exist) with Maryland v. Craig, 497 U.S. 836 (1990) (right to be confronted with witnesses, U.S. Const., Amdt. 6, does not).
Antonin Scalia
Fifty years ago, Roe v. Wade was decided and has been the law of the land since then.
This landmark case protected a woman's right to choose, her right to make intensely personal decisions with her doctor, free from ... interference of politics.
It reaffirmed basic principles of equality - that women have the power to control their own destiny. And it reinforced the fundamental right of privacy - the right of each of us to choose how to live our lives.
Now, with Roe gone, let's be very clear: The health and life of women in this nation are now at risk.
Joe Biden
