Roe V. Wade: The Abortion Rights Controversy in American History?second Edition, Revised and Expanded

by N.E.H. Hull and Peter Charles Hoffer

Book Overview

Few Supreme Court decisions have stirred up as much controversy, vitriolic debate, and even violence as the one delivered in Roe v. Wade in 1973. Four decades later, it remains a touchstone for the culture wars in the United States and a pivot upon which much of our politics turns. With that in mind Peter Charles Hoffer and N. E. H. Hull have now taken stock of the abortion debates, controversies, and cases that have emerged during the past...

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 070061754X
• ISBN13: 9780700617548
• Release Date: September 2010
• Publisher: University Press of Kansas
• Length: 384 Pages
• Weight: 0.90 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.1" x 5.5" x 8.4"

Customer Reviews

Is it murder or is it a right?

One of many controversial Supreme court cases in the United States is the case of Roe v Wade. Norma McCourvey was a 23 year old pregnant divorced women. Norma took on the name of Jane Roe to secure her identity infont of the public. Roe lived in the state of Texas. She wanted to terminate her pregnancy the only obstacle was that with in the state of Texas a women was not allowed to have an abortion unless her life depended on it.Roe was pregnant from an affair she had which caused her marriage to fail. Roe took the case to the Supreme court alleging that her rights were being violated and that under the amendments 1,4 9 and 14 she had a choice. The attorneys who would carry on this case were two young women named Sarh Weddington adn Linda Coffee. Both had recently graduated from the University of Texas. Sarah at the time was also pregnant,but would go on and have the child. Attorney Henry Wade was force with the decision to allow Norma nad other women to have an abortion. Two years after the case was presented the court decided that in fact a womens right to choose on what to do with her body was hers and nobody else. I would reccomend this book to everyone who is interested in politics. Due to the fact that no matter how someone feels towards a certain topic you may never know what your decision might be. I might one day become a lawyer and reading this book opened my eyes ;to realize that I can not allow my morals and beliefs to get in the way of my profession. I would also reccomend this book to anyone who has strong feelings on whether abortion should be legal or not. Finally I just enjoyed this book because although abortion is a very controversial topic it is also one a very easy book to read and comprehend.

A highly readable and engaging book on the topic

This is a highly readable and engaging book on the topic, covering the history of abortion laws from early 1800s to the Clinton years. To explain the legal shifts throughout those 200 years, the authors describe the social, political, religious and scientific forces that have lead up to each turning point, and how those shifts in turn have influenced further shifts in a seemingly never ending chain. They do so by presenting the various sides of the debate in an even-handed and concise manner, without losing depth on the one hand and without getting bogged down with technicalities on the other. What I found of particular interest was the behind-the-scenes debates of the Justices both in Griswold v. Connecticut and in Roe v. Wade that shed light on their final decision.