NEXT: Trial
Background
The legality of abortion was determined by the individual states before 1973. During the mid 1960s, forty-four states banned abortion under almost all circumstances; excluding those situations that the life or health of the mother is at risk. During the 1960’s states began to modify their abortion laws. Roe v. Wade was decided in the early 1970s (Kliff).
In the year 1821 the state of Connecticut introduced a complete outlaw on abortions; this was the first law banning abortions to be passed in the United States. At the end of the ninetieth century, the forty-five states that were at the time part of the United States had each passed a law prohibiting the practice of abortion. Furthermore, in all states providing the service of an abortion or being the recipient of an abortion was considered a common law crime. Giving or receiving abortions was an illegal act in many states, with strict rules and restrictions highlighted by statute in all other states (Kogan).
When the case of Roe v. Wade made it to the Supreme Court in 1973, abortion was only completely legal in the states of Hawaii, Washington, New York, and Alaska. Furthermore, it was partially legal in sixteen states, making exceptions for extreme circumstances such as danger to health, incest, and rape. However in the other thirty states abortion was entirely illegal in all situations (Kogan).