The Supreme Court ruled 7-2 that (1) states have legitimate interests in seeing to it that abortions are performed under circumstances that insure maximum safety for the patient, (2) the right of privacy encompasses a woman's decision whether or not to terminate her pregnancy, (3) a woman's right to terminate her pregnancy is not absolute, and may to some extent be limited by the state's legitimate interests in maintaining proper medical standards, and in protecting potential human life, (4) the unborn are not included within the definition of "person as used in the Fourteenth Amendment, (5) prior to the end of the first trimester of pregnancy, the state may not interfere with or regulate an attending physician's decision, reached in consultation with his patient, that the patient's pregnancy should be terminated, (6) from and after the end of the first trimester and until the point in time when the fetus becomes viable, the state may regulate the abortion procedure only to the extent that such regulation relates to the preservation and protection of maternal health, (7) from and after the point in time when the fetus becomes viable, the state may prohibit abortions altogether, except those necessary to preserve the life or health of the mother, and (8) the state may proscribe the performance of all abortions except those performed by physicians currently licensed by the state.
To see the entire Roe v. Wade decision.
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