Ruling in Roe v. Wade, on January 22, 1973, the majority opinion declared that “the right of personal privacy includes the abortion decision, but that this right is not unqualified and must be considered against important state interests in regulation.”
The question presented was:
Whether “[s]tate criminal abortion laws, like those involved here, that except from criminality only a life-saving procedure on the mother’s behalf without regard to the stage of her pregnancy and other interests involved violate the Due Process Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment.”
Oral Arguments
You can hear the oral arguments for this case here:
Or listen to them directly on the Supreme Court’s website here.
The Ruling
You can read the final ruling in Roe v. Wade either in our read in full below, or click here for a PDF.
Loading...
Reload document
Open in new tab 
