Abstract

In June 1969, a lady named Norma L. McCorvey from US, found out that she was pregnant. Earlier, she had given birth to two children but given both of them in adoption due to the hardships and impoverished situations in her life. Following the same circumstances, this time also she wanted to terminate her pregnancy. Some friends suggested her to pretend falsely that she had been raped so that she can have a legal abortion (not being aware of the fact that Texas Law does not allow abortion in rape cases). However, this scheme doesn’t work out as there was no document of police report regarding the alleged rape. At that time, abortion was only allowed by law in case there is any threat to mother’s life. She decided to have an illegal abortion but discovered that illegal abortion facility had been caught by the police and thus closed down. After all the schemes of her to obtain an abortion, failed, she was referred to the assistance of attorneys of Texas, Linda Coffee and Sarah Weddington who sought to challenge the existing laws of abortion. They filed a suit in the United States District Court for the Northern District of Texas on behalf of McCorvey (under the alias Jane Roe) against the defendant, Henry Wade. Meanwhile the case was pending before the court, McCorvey gave birth to a child in 1970 and gave him also for adoption. On June 17, 1970, a three judge Bench of the District Court declared that the existing abortion laws are void as it violates the right to privacy as enshrined under Ninth and Fourteenth Amendment Rights. Aggrieved by the decision, the appellant reached to the Supreme Court of United States against the injunctive rulings.

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