Woman march outside the Supreme Court during the trial.
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Trial
During the trial of Roe v. Wade the members of the Supreme Court were asked to decided whether or not a woman’s right to an abortion was covered in the unclearly defined right to privacy, and if it in fact was covered, to what extent (Kogan).
There was an initial ruling in the favor of Roe by the trial court that first heard the case. The court based their ruling on the ninth amendment, which states that, “The enumeration in the Constitution, of certain rights, shall not be construed to deny or disparage others retained by the people. The enumeration in the Constitution, of certain rights, shall not be construed to deny or disparage others retained by the people” (“9th Amendment.”). Moreover, they stated that the ninth amendment indeed protected a woman’s right to have an abortion because it is a right reserved for the people to decide on and is outside the rein of the government. Even though the trial court ruled in Roe’s favor for the right to obtain an abortion, the court did not decide to change the Texas law being disputed that prohibited others from obtaining a legal abortion. Consequently, Roe appealed her case to the United States Supreme Court (Kogan).
To get a deeper look into the trial you can read the official trial transcripts here. Also listening to the oral arguments helps to feel like you are at the trial, the mp3s are too big to upload to this site but you can still listen to the trial here.