Roe, Wade and America

The conservative-dominated US supreme court is considering a case that could lead to the reversal of the 48-year-old ruling on a woman’s right to choose. What damage would such a verdict do to the nation – and how did it come to this?

- Jessica Glenza

In the early 1970s, law enforcement leaders in Chicago decided the practice of illegal abortion was intolerable in their city and under-took a campaign to root out those who performed the pro-cedure in secret.

On a tip, police turned their attention to “Call Jane ”, a feminist collective of young women who, since 1965, had provided safe but illegal abortions to roughly 3,000 Chicagoans per year. A Chicago homicide detective traced “Jane” to the South Shore neighbourhood . Police raided an apartment and arrested nearly 50 people for questioning .

Seven women were charged with 11 counts of performing an abortion and conspiracy to commit abortion. But the Call Jane members protected people they served . Then, in 1973, the “Abortion Seven” had a reprieve . Prosecutors abandoned the case when supreme court justices issued a landmark ruling in the case of Roe v Wade , effectively legalising abortion across the US.

In Roe, the court affirmed that access to safe and legal abortion was a constitutional right. The court ruled that states could not ban abortion before a foetus can survive outside the womb, roughly considered to be 24 weeks gestation (a full term pregnancy is considered to be 39 weeks).

Now, Roe faces a direct challenge . US supreme court justices have taken up the case of Dobbs v Jackson Women’s Health Clinic, to consider whether the state of Mississippi can ban nearly all abortion from 15 weeks. Abortion advocates believe the choice to take the case implies that at least four justices see it as a chance to reconsider the precedent set by Roe .