Constitutional Grounds
Texas anti-abortion laws and the Texas Supreme Court ruling were challenged on the grounds of the Fourteenth and Ninth Amendments of the US Constitution. The Fourteenth Amendment guaranteed equal protection under the law to all citizens. Physicians who were accused of performing illegal "back-alley" abortions usually used the Fourteenth Amendment in their defense. They claimed that the law was not specific enough with the regard to when a women's life might be considered a threat by pregnancy and childbirth. Jane Roe, Norma McCorvey, based her arguments on the Ninth Amendment. The Ninth Amendment states " The enumeration in the Constitution of certain rights, shall not be constructed to deny or disparage others retained by the people." People understood different meanings of the Ninth Amendment itself before and after 1965. Before 1965, citizens understood it to mean that rights not specifically granted to the federal government were retained by the states. However, after 1965, the Supreme Court case, Griswold v. Connecticut, gave a different interpretation of the amendment. They said that the rights not specifically listed in the Constitution were retained by the people, not the states, and one of these rights was the right to privacy.
This right to privacy should protect the right of a women to decide whether or not to become a mother.
This right to privacy should protect the right of a women to decide whether or not to become a mother.