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   Back in 2022, before it was overturned, we posted a week-long thread on Twitter with a history of Roe v Wade. It feels more relevant than ever, so we'll be reposting here over the next few days...

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     In the second trimester, the justices concluded that greater intervention from government may be justified to preserve maternal health. And in the third trimester they believed abortions could be entirely prohibited as the foetus was viable.

     The Supreme Court ruled this right to be fundamental, and that abortion restrictions must be evaluated under "strict scrutiny" standards, a stringent standard of judicial review to ensure they were justifiable.

     GreenSkyOverMe (Monika) repeated this.
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     Responses from the public and organisations were immediately strong on all sides - strong support and strong opposition. Since then, the Roe v. Wade decision has been cited and challenged in numerous cases. Tomorrow, we'll explore some key post-Roe v. Wade challenges in the USA.

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     The Supreme Court had found in "Jane Roe's" favour, and their opinion was that Texas's restrictive abortion laws were unconstitutional and violated the "right to privacy" in the Due Process Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment.

     "Our conclusion that Art. 1196 is unconstitutional means, of course, that the Texas abortion statutes, as a unit, must fall."

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     The opinion examined this right to privacy weighing up the choices of the "pregnant patient" and doctors, health, and viability of the foetus, concluding that in the first trimester of pregnancy, very minimal intervention from government was justified.

     Any intervention should largely be pertinent to health providers being qualified, and the justices didn't believe it was constitutional to prohibit abortion in the first trimester.

     GreenSkyOverMe (Monika) repeated this.
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     The reargument took place in October 1972, and Justice Blackmun led on drafting the final opinion. The justices voted 7-2 in favour of this opinion, with Justice White and Justice Rehnquist dissenting.

     The decision was published on 22nd January 1973. It appeared on newsstands before formal publication, as Justice Powell had given a copy of the decision to a journalist with the understanding they'd publish it before the date of the next issue of Time Magazine, but it leaked.

     GreenSkyOverMe (Monika) repeated this.
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     Following the arguments, Justice Blackmun was set to work drafting the opinion. It was decided to reargue the case, as two justices had been appointed to the Supreme Court since the oral arguments had been presented. During the discussions, a memo from Justice Douglas to his fellow justices was leaked to the media, and published in the Washington Post in June 1972.

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     On 13th December 1971, the attorneys made their oral arguments. There was a little confusion at first, as the justices thought the case was questioning jurisdiction rather than making a constitutional argument, but Weddington directed it towards the constitutional side.

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     Jay Floyd opened the argument in defence of Texas's restrictive abortion laws with a sexist joke.

     He got up in front of the Supreme Court and said, referring to Weddington and Coffee, said, "Mr. Chief Justice and may it please the Court. It's an old joke, but when a man argues against two beautiful ladies like this, they are going to have the last word."

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     Floyd's sexist joke in his opening statement went down like a bucket of cold sick. If you listen to the audio recordings, you can hear a long, awkward silence after Floyd's attempt at humour. An observer said it looked like Chief Justice Burger "was going to come right off the bench at him" and "glared him down".

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     Texas appealed to the Supreme Court. Although the case arrived with the Supreme Court fairly swiftly, justices decided to delay hearing Roe v. Wade (and a similar case, Doe v. Bolton, focusing on Georgia's abortion laws) pending decisions on some other cases.

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     The case was first heard by U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Texas. In June 1970, the three judges unanimously ruled in the plaintiff's favour - that they believed Texas's abortion laws to be unconstitutional.

     One of the judges on the panel, Sarah T. Hughes, knew Linda Coffee personally, as Coffee had previously clerked for her.

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     So these are some of the key people involved in Roe v Wade. Tomorrow, we'll explore what happened in the case once it went to court, and the majority opinion which was delivered by Justice Blackmun.

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     Today, in this ongoing history of Roe v. Wade, we'll look at the arguments presented in court, and what the ruling in the 1973 court case meant.

     In short, the basis for the argument made in Roe v. Wade was whether Texas's strict abortion laws infringed upon "Jane Roe's" right to privacy protected by the Ninth and Fourteenth Amendments to the Constitution.

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     One further person of note is Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States Harry Blackmun (1908-1999), who led on writing the opinion on Roe v. Wade.

     Justice Blackmun was tasked with writing the opinion because the other judges of the Supreme Court were all seen as too political in some way - too liberal, too conservative, or Black or Catholic. A Republican appointed under Nixon, Justice Blackmun was seen as the best option.

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     Justice Blackmun's Supreme Court career spanned 1970-1994. After Roe v. Wade, he had a particular interest in abortion cases, authoring opinions on cases which came before the court, and giving speeches and lectures on the topic.

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     Justice Blackmun was known for giving his clerks a lot of freedom in drafting his opinions, so a special mention goes to attorney, environmentalist and government offical George T. Frampton (1944-), who researched and probably authored a lot of the Roe v. Wade opinion.

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     Ruby's conviction was later overturned, and this wasn't the only high-profile overturned conviction under Wade's leadership. Randall Dale Adams's conviction for the 1977 murder of a police officer was overturned following documentary The Thin Blue Line (1988).

     At least 15 more people convicted under Wade have since been exonerated with DNA evidence, and more are suspected to have been falsely imprisoned.

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     Wade himself wasn't actually directly involved in Roe v. Wade, he was named on the case due to his position as Dallas County's district attorney. The case was argued by Jay Floyd, and later Robert C. Flowers

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     In 1998, McCorvey changed religions again, and converted to Catholicism, continuing to speak out against abortion.

     Shortly before her death, McCorvey recanted once again, and in a "deathbed confession" said she had never been anti-abortion and only spoken out against it because she'd been paid to do so.

     It's hard to know McCorvey's true opinion. She may have been exploited by both sides. She was a complex figure thrust into the spotlight and it's difficult to interpret her changing views.

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     Henry Wade (1914-2001) was the other named party on Roe v. Wade. He was the district attorney of Dallas County at the time. A former FBI agent and US Navy officer, he was elected to become Dallas County's DA in 1951, and held the position for 36 years.

     With the dates, you'll spot that Wade was DA at a time something very interesting happened in Dallas County. And yes, he had wanted to try Lee Harvey Oswald for Kennedy's assassination. When Oswald was killed by Jack Ruby, he oversaw Ruby's trial

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     During Roe v. Wade, McCorvey met her long-term partner Connie Gonzalez, and said she identified as a lesbian. However, later in her life, converted to Evangelical Protestantism and recanted and said she was no longer a lesbian. She still continued to live with Gonzalez.

     Following her conversion in 1995, McCorvey became a vocal anti-abortion advocate. She quit her job at an abortion clinic and joined with an anti-abortion group, giving speeches in favour of making abortion illegal.

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     Their plaintiff, anonymised as "Jane Roe", was referred to Coffee's office by a colleague, and the litigation process for Roe v. Wade began.

     "Jane Roe's" real name was Norma McCorvey (1947-2017). Her identity is known because later in her life she spoke about her experience as Roe. At the time, she was 21 years old, and pregnant for the third time.

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     McCorvey was persuaded to get involved in the litigation as she was misled by Weddington that this would help her obtain a legal abortion. She was persuaded against obtaining abortion care illegally and gave birth in June 1970.

     Later, Weddington acknowledged her unethical behaviour in securing her plaintiff, saying “My conduct may not have been totally ethical. But I did it for what I thought were good reasons."

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     After Roe v. Wade, Weddington was elected to the Texas House of Representatives, and became an advocate for reproductive health. She served in the US Department for Agriculture during Jimmy Carter's administration.

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     Linda Coffee (1942-) was the other attorney involved in representing "Jane Roe". After gaining her law degree from the University of Texas, Coffee clerked for federal judge Sarah Hughes, and worked for the Texas Legislative Council.

     Coffee and Weddington met when Coffee gave a speech about an abortion rights lawsuit she was representing. The lawyers decided to increase the chances of success, they needed a second case to represent. And for that, they needed to find themselves a plaintiff.

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     Sarah Weddington (1945-2021) was one of the lawyers who represented "Jane Roe". She was at the beginning of her career at the time of Roe v. Wade, and it was the first case she'd argued in court. She was 26 years old when proceedings began.

     Weddington studied at McMurry University and later the University of Texas Law School. During her third year of law school, she travelled to Mexico to obtain an abortion.

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     In Texas in 1973, whose abortion statutes were contested in the Roe v. Wade case, abortion was prohibited except for circumstances necessary to save the life of the mother.

     We'll continue the story here tomorrow, and look at some of the key individuals involved in Roe v Wade.

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     In today's installment of our brief history of Roe v. Wade, we're going to introduce you to some of the key individuals involved in the case...

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     At the same time, rallies were being held to advocate for safe and legal abortion. Some groups set up networks to safe and supportive but illegal abortion, such as "Jane", and the Clergy Consultation Service on Abortion, a network of pastors and rabbis.

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     In response to changing attitudes, some states began to repeal restrictive abortion laws. Colorado was first, in 1967: it decriminalised abortion in cases of rape, incest or where pregnancy would be harmful. Similar laws were passed in other states. Hawaii was the first to legalise abortion on request, in 1970.

     By 1973, 30 states still banned abortion in all circumstances, 16 permitted it in special circumstances, in three states it was legal for residents. In New York it was generally legal.

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     Nevertheless, abortions happened. It was estimated that in the 1930s, about 800,000 abortions a year were occurring. The laws prevented legal access.

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     In the 1960s, abortion became a more visible issue, and discussion of it became more public. Part of this was due to children's TV host Sherri Finkbine, who sought an abortion after having taken medication containing thalidomide. Under laws in Arizona, she was not permitted to terminate her pregnancy. When the newspaper violated her privacy, she was subjected to death threats. The hospital cancelled the operation which had been recommended by her doctor. She flew to Sweden to obtain an abortion.

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     Another factor likely to be connected with restrictive abortion laws passing in the USA in the 19th century was immigration - birth rates of white Protestant women was declining, while there was an increase in immigration of Catholics. This concerned the eugenics movement.

     By the end of the 19th century, most states had laws banning abortion except under very narrow circumstances. Publishing information pertinent to contraceptives and abortifacients was also illegal under Comstock laws.

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     Today, we'll focus on the background, and abortion in the USA prior to Roe v. Wade in 1973. For the first few decades of its history, there were no laws on the books outlawing abortion: it was subject to English common law.

     Under English common law, abortion prior to "quickening" - where the foetus's movements are first felt, which is usually between 15-20 weeks of pregnancy - was not an offence. It was not permitted after this point.

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     Connecticut was the first state to introduce a law banning abortion in 1821, and other states followed suit throughout the 19th century.

     Laws typically focused on poison control, as abortion was practiced using herbs and substances administered by midwives. A part of this was due to the professionalisation of medicine in the 19th century, and a backlash by doctors against care provided by those who were not doctors.