The 1973 U.S. Supreme Court decision Roe v. Wade found that abortion is a matter of privacy, just like contraception. However, the judges considered each of the three stages, or trimesters, of pregnancy differently. A state may not pass any laws to interfere with a woman’s right to abortion during the first three months of pregnancy except to require that it be performed by a licensed physician. For the second three months, a state may make laws only to protect a pregnant woman’s health and not to restrict abortion. But after the fetus is viable, a state may forbid abortion unless the pregnant woman’s life or health is threatened by continuing the pregnancy. (Viability refers to the ability of the fetus to survive outside the woman’s body and must be determined by the woman’s physician.)

Other important Supreme Court decisions about abortion have been made since Roe v. Wade, including the following:

1976: Planned Parenthood of Central Missouri v. Danforth. A state cannot give a husband the right to veto his wife’s decision to have an abortion. An underage woman does not need the consent of her parents in order to have an abortion.

1979: Bellotti v. Baird. A state can require an underage daughter to get written parental consent before having an abortion. However, the law must include a «judicial bypass» procedure for girls who cannot get written consent. This means that a pregnant girl has to appear before a judge in court and prove that she is mature or that an abortion would be in her best interests. Conservative judges have blocked efforts by underage girls to get abortions. Some states require parents to be notified, at least, before a minor daughter’s abortion.

1988: Webster v. Reproductive Health Services. The reversal of Roe v. Wade and a return to the days of illegal abortion becomes possible. By allowing states to bar the use of public facilities for abortion, Webster victimized women of all economic circumstances by limiting their access to abortion services.

1992: Planned Parenthood of Southeastern Pennsylvania v. Casey. The right to abortion is reaffirmed, but restrictions are allowed unless they constitute an «undue burden» to the woman. Approved roadblocks to abortion include a mandatory 24-hour waiting period, a parental consent provision with a judicial bypass for minors, and the provision of state-authored anti-abortion materials.

Thirty-eight states have passed parental consent or parental notification laws since 1979, although only 27 states enforce these laws. Parental consent laws can be very dangerous. They force many pregnant girls to go to neighboring states to get abortions, to run away from home, to get unsafe illegal abortions, or to attempt self-abortion using dangerous methods. Girls who are forced to have children they do not want often abuse or neglect them.

Most girls tell their parents—usually their mothers—before they have an abortion. But some girls, such as Becky Bell, do not. In 1988, Rebecca was a 17-year-old Indiana teenager. She died from an illegal abortion. Her state required written parental notification for a minor to receive an abortion. But Rebecca did not want her parents to know about her pregnancy. She could have used the judicial-bypass provision in the law, but she was told that the judge was anti-choice. She could have traveled to the next state, Kentucky, but she had no transportation. No one knows what Rebecca did to attempt abortion, but she died from her attempt, as did hundreds of thousands of American women before abortion was made safe and legal in 1973.

Since Roe v. Wade, abortion continues to be a highly charged issue.

Most Americans are pro-choice and believe that abortion should remain safe and legal. Anti-choice activists believe that it should be illegal again. Violent assaults on doctors, clinics, and women seeking abortion have increased since the late 1970s.

Due to the number of bombings, arsons, blockades, incidents of harassment and stalking, as well as the murders of doctors and clinic workers by anti-choice terrorists, fewer doctors are willing to perform abortions now. No legal abortion services are available in 83 percent of U.S. counties, in 93 percent of nonmetropolitan areas, and in 51 percent of metropolitan areas.

Medical schools are training fewer doctors in abortion procedures. Medical students are being targeted with anti-choice propaganda and threats. One such «joke book,» mailed to more than 30,000 medical students, recommended that «physicians who perform abortions should be shot, attacked by dogs, and buried in concrete.»

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