January 22: Roe v. Wade (1973) is forty years old today. From
Justice Harry Blackmun’s opinion of the court: This right of
privacy, whether it be founded in the Fourteenth Amendment’s
concept of personal liberty and restrictions upon state action,
as we feel it is, or, as the District Court determined, in the
Ninth Amendment’s reservation of rights to the people, is broad
enough to encompass a woman’s decision whether or not to
terminate her pregnancy. The detriment that the State would
impose upon the pregnant woman by denying this choice altogether
is apparent. Specific and direct harm medically diagnosable even
in early pregnancy may be involved. Maternity, or additional
offspring, may force upon the woman a distressful life and
future. Psychological harm may be imminent. Mental and physical
health may be taxed by child care. There is also the distress,
for all concerned, associated with the unwanted child, and there
is the problem of bringing a child into a family already unable,
psychologically and other