Before Roe v. Wade - 9781607146711

"We found ourselves on a journey of discovery that took us to public and private archives and that placed in our hands crumbling and long-forgotten legal documents retrieved from participants' attics and basements. We heard the voices of women and men---well-known, little-known, and completely unknown---calling from across the years. It is a privilege to enable them to speak again in their own words in these pages."---from the Introduction

Decades after the landmark Roe v. Wade decision, abortion remains a polarizing topic on America's political landscape. Blending history, culture, and law, Before Roe v. Wade explores the roots of that conflict, reconstructing the rise of the pro-choice and pro-life movements and recovering the voices that helped shape the climate that sparked the Supreme Court's 1973 decision. This perspective on the abortion debate is as relevant as ever with the prospect of imminent changes on the Supreme Court.

Including rare and never-before-seen archival documents---and showcasing a variety of fascinating firsthand accounts from women who considered illegal abortions and the doctors and clergy they consulted, calls to action by activists on both sides, papers from long-forgotten court cases and legislative debates, friend-of-the-court briefs, and other documents of an era marked by transformation---the authors recapture a pivotal chapter in America's past.

The Supreme Court's 1973 decision in Roe v. Wade declared that the Constitution protected decisions regarding abortion---but the debate was far from over, continuing to be a political battleground to this day. In the decades since the case was decided, the American debate on abortion has moved away from the issues that the justices confronted more than three decades ago. Bringing to light key documents that illuminate the case and its political context, Before Roe v. Wade looks back and recaptures how the arguments for and against abortion took shape as claims about the meaning of the Constitution---and about how the nation could best honor its commitment to dignity, liberty, equality, and life.

Chronicling these diverse voices, authors Linda Greenhouse and Reva Siegel show us both sides of the debate. Assembled here are statements from religious leaders, patients, obstetricians; a medical director of Planned Parenthood, members of the Zero Population Growth movement, as well as excerpts from Betty Friedan's campaign to equate abortion and civil rights and the voices of others on the front lines of the debate.