4 OPINION Page 4 Saturday, January 22, 1983 The Michigan Daily Roe v. Wade: Ten years later By Richard Carelli WASHINGTON - It began with an un- married woman, known only as "Jane Roe," who was too poor to leave Texas to end her un- wanted pregnancy. So she stayed home and gave birth. Then she challenged the state law that outlawed the abortion she would have b preferred. a Jane Roe didn't know it when she went to court, but she was setting off a social ear- thquake that is still shaking America 10 years *later. IT WAS A decade ago that Justice Harry Blackmun, a quiet, meticulous conservative from Minnesota, used Jane Roe's appeal to .,write the Supreme Court's majority opinion legalizing abortion. He said it was a "no-win case," and he was right. Since the court's ruling, by a 7-2 vote, was announced Jan. 22, 1973, American women -*have had 10 million lawful abortions. In recent years, the rate has been one abortion for every three births. Statistical studies indicate that before 1973, American women underwent 200,000 to 1 "million illegal abortions annually. THE RANCOROUS legal and moral debate over the issue continues unabated a decade later-in church pulpits, editorial pages, the halls of Congress, even in the White House Oval Office. 'Letters by the tens of thousands, more than the Supreme Court has gotten on any decision before or since, have descended on the justices. Most of them are critical, and most are ad- dressed to Blackmun. He still gets eight or 10 letters a day and, ignoring the advice of his colleagues, he reads them all. Blackmun says he's been called a "Butcher of Dachau," a "Pontius Pilate," a "King Herod" who murders innocent babes. BLACKMUN TOLD A television interviewer in 1974 that the decision he wrote "will be regarded as one of the worst mistakes in the court's history or one of its great decisions, a turning point." He never doubted it would be highly controversial. "I still think it's a correct decision," he said recently in a rare, for-the-record interview with The Associated Press. "We were deciding a constitutional issue, not a moral one." He added, somewhat ruefully, "We all pick up tags. I'll carry this one to my grave." JANET BENSHOOF, director of the American Civil Liberties Union's Reproductive Freedom Project, said it was the most impor- tant decision in Supreme Court history for women. "They no longer are criminals for con- trolling their own reproduction," she said. On the other side - the "pro-life" side - is Nellie Gray. She has organized a Jan. 22 march on Washington every year since 1974 to protest the decision. "It's murder, pure and simple," she said. "Abortion means killing babies." The abortion decision, including a companion case and two appendices, consumes 104 pages of the Supreme Court's official reports. It tells little, however, about the Dallas County woman who took the fictitious name of "Jane Doe" to pursue her legal battle against the Texas anti- abortion law. THE STATE PROHIBITED any woman from ending her pregnancy unless it threatened her-life. Jane Roe did not want a baby. She could have traveled to Mexico, Puer- to Rico, New York or a few other states for an abortion, but she couldn't afford to leave home. Rather than have an illegal abortion, she gave birth and put the baby up for adoption. Lawyers eager to challenge the state law took up her cause, and she sued Texas authorities in 1970. She lost in a federal trial court but won in the Supreme Court. Blackmun's opinion, in 52 pages with 67 foot- notes, focused on a woman's constitutional right to privacy. He said that included the right to end an unwanted pregnancy. THE OPINION acknowledged, at the same time, that states have legitimate interests in protecting health and "potential life." To balance those competing state and in- dividual interests, Blackmun crafted a remarkable formula that reflected his background as an honors student in mathematics at Harvard University and chief counsel for the Mayo Clinic, the renowned medical center at Rochester, Minn. The formula embodied in his opinion was this: A woman's decision to have an abortion in the first three months of her pregnancy-must be left to her and her doctor. The states can require only that medical procedures be carried out by a licensed physician. THE STATES MAY interfere, through varying forms of regulation, to protect a woman's health only in the second trimester of pregnancy. They nay not take steps to protect the life of the fetus until the final three months. Justice Byron White, in a dissenting opinion for himself and Justice William Rehnquist, said: "The court simply fashions and announ- ces a new constitutional right for pregnant mothers and, with scarcely any reason or authority for its action, invests that right with sufficient substance to override most existing state abortion statutes." White's criticism was supported by some legal scholars who, in an ironic twist, leveled a charge of "judicial activism" against a high court that included four justices nominated by President Richard Nixon for their conservative inclinations. One of the four was Blackman. ANTI-ABORTION forces thus far have failed in their attempts to undo the 1973 decision. Two measures aimed at achieving that goal - one by amending the Constitution and the other by declaring a fetus a "person" - have fQoun- dered in Congress. National opinion polls indicate that most Americans support abortion rights. In an Associated Press-NBC News poll last year, 77 percent of the people responding said they agreed with the statement that "the decision to have an abortion should be left to the woman and her physician." If the anti-abortion movement represents a minority, however, it is a vocal and active minority that has kept the issue on the Supreme Court agenda. A SUCCESSION of cases has required the justices to decide whether proposed state and federal regulation complies with the 1973 guidelines. Each new case underscores the commitment and zeal of the people on both sides of the debate. "It's that kind of an issue," Blackmun said in the interview. "Fifty years from now, depen- ding on the fate of the proposed constitutional amendment, abortion probably will not be as great a legal issue. I think it will continue to be a moral issue, however." In the years since the initial ruling, the Supreme Court has tried to fine-tune its 1973 decision. By July, the court will be asked again to clarify how far government authorities can go in making abortions more difficult to ob- tain. 4 PRO-CHOICE FORCES have charged their foes with using "legislative mischief" to undo the 1973 decision, and they say that the up- coming court decisions will bear greatly on the future of their fight. For its part, the Reagan administration is asking the high court to give "heavy deferen- ce" to the efforts of state and local governmen- ts to regulate abortions. That approach, says the ACLU's Benshoof, "would result in absolute chaos," with "every judge in the country ....ruling on personal views." DANIEL DONEHEY of the National Right to Life Committee said such an approach would signal "ahwelcome retreat from an ethic that devalues human life." "There are a lot of things going on in the abortion industry today that would curl your hair," Donehey said. "There's a great need for increased regulation." Blackmun anticipated deep dpagreement over the issue when he wrote in the 1973 opinion that views on abortion are influenced by "one's philosophy, experiences, exposures to the raw edges of human existence, religious training, and moral standards." Ten years later, he said: "I think the obser- vation had a place in that opinion. I think it still would if written today." Carelli is the chief Supreme Court repor- ter for The Associated Press. 4 Edited and managed by students at The University of Michigan Wasserman Vol. XCIII, No. 92 420 Maynard St. Ann Arbor, MI 48109 Editorials represent a majority opinion of the Daily's Editorial Board e The struggle continues MRW. WES Rt% D ) 4 Ni\TtoNS TNAM To ReLP ?ANI OUR. NO MORE \MD! FEND FOR~ YOULW/5 IN HE SUPREME Court's decision 'Tguaranteeing "Jane Roe" the right to an abortion stands as a monument guarding a person's right to privacy and free choice. But 10 years later the battle still rages invoking fears that the principles rest on tenuous grounds. Unlike the battles that were fought and won for civil rights, the past decade has not been marked by progress for abortion rights. The court has refused to require states to help fund abortions for women and states have imposed various restrictions that further burden those who seek abor- tions. But beyond the public controversy, there are constitutional questions in- volved. The court decided Roe v. Wade on the basis of that document's provisions. The court was not acting beyond its powers, as many have charged, because the court was originally formed to weigh such issues. What the court ruled is that women have a fundamental right to privacy - a right to bodily integrity. This right, though not explicity stated in the Con- stitution, runs throughout the fourth and fifth amendments as well as the ninth, which states that rights D \T - s .SI I 's jr enumerated in the Constitution shall not be construed to "disparage others retained by the people." Since the Constitution is the supreme law of the land, any laws made by legislatures are necessarily void when the court finds them in contradiction with it. That means that no majority of legislators may legally undermine rights guaranteed under the Con- stitution unless they are seeking a con- stitutional amendment. And a pro-life amendment could bring up the tricky issue of the Constitution being in con- tradiction with itself. Even if the Constitution were -not fundamental law, the pro-lifers probably could not achieve their goal of banning abortion outright. Last year, a national opinion poll revealed that 77 percent of Americans feel that the woman and her physician should decide whether or not to have an abor- tion. But the pro-lifers, with their vociferous members and strong organization, wield influence far beyondtheirtactualrnumbers. Such power is all the more reason for the courts and Congress members as well to uphold the Constitution they swore to serve upon taking office. W-OKS LIKE We'LLtJUST ?LEA;E/J PLEKsE/ HAVE To DEEAULT (Ck 0 \ t AS 4: SA z~i LETTERS TO THE DAILY: Cheerleaders: Fans need to wake up .. '" v _ 'f f . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . x 1 " ' I Yt ! if i. t r . ,. +:f 44 - , ' " . Z'44) te r ,. . ' .*bi r r a c f P_ a~y .", 't' t . . . . r. Z.re Y .- 1 yu t y y ! 4 .S r " , ,sti ' o-L ? K> , .( j t xa ~a ws i r *, + '$ r f' ter ,. r LS} f~~~~. f, })t ! + r ~:w"1 " t r4 .4 lL wtx ' y ;t1 y i r *... . " .t pa., ,f a , " " To the Daily: Each year around this time, a Daily writer will write an article about the laid-back fans at Crisler Arena in an attempt to create some excitement at the University of Michigan basket- ball games. Of course, there must be a scapegoat to whom the finger must be pointed for this mundane atmosphere. We, as veteran Michigan basketball cheerleaders, feel that Mike Bradley in his article "It's not just the fans that lack spirit," (Daily, Jan. 19), has just about hit the nail on the head. We feel that there are two types of fans. First there are those true fans who back the blue-win or. lose-and who don't boo Dan Pelekoudas and Tim McCormick at their every mistake. On the other hand, there are those (predominantly alumni) who come to Crisler for the warm, friendly atmosphere and its terrific nachos. In defense of the cheerleaders, we feel that it is extremely dif- ficult to "whip the fans into some sort of frenzied fervor" while being assaulted with shouts of "sit down" and "we paid for these seats." We think that the "pseudo-partisans," as Mr. Bradley refers to them, should take note of the small number of enthusiastic fans who sit at the south end of Crisler Arena. These fans are what college spirit and Big 10 basketball is all about. In closing, we invite Mr. Bradley or anyone else who has helpful suggestions for the cheerleaders to come and attend one of our practices and work with us in an attempt to change the atmosphere of Crisler Arena. Maybe your hints and suggestions will aid us in giving our basketball team a true home court advantage! -Randy Colman Rick Katz January 19 Course packs are a rip off To the Daily: I was pleased to read that a suit is being filed that might limit course-pack use. As an LSA undergraduate, I've purchased a dozen or so of the coursepacks from all the copy houses in town. The quality and cost of reproduction varies greatly. Particularly, I'm insulted by the predominance of course packs that I've been forced to purchase at Dollar Bill Copy. One must pay high copy rates, in ad- vance, and wait 48 hours for their course pack. Why wait 48 hours? I can have photographs printed in 48 minutes. The course pack business is a monopoly that students and lazy professors support. What can be done? Boycott? Reserve room? -Colleen Fitzgerald January 20. Krell, kittykittykitty ro the Daily: CE C.E.. hee-hee. Here, kittykittykittykittykittykit- i Aml