It was 1969 when Norma Leah McCorvey aka Jane Rowe, a 21-year-old Texan with a turbulent past, becomes pregnant for the third time. Two of her children have already been given up for adoption. Norma is addicted to alcohol and drugs, has no stable job, and her husband is abusive. In short, she does not want to be a mother: so she decides to terminate the pregnancy. The state in which he lives Texas, does not provide for abortionexcept in cases of rape or incest.

The History of the Roe v. Wade Trial

The only way out is to claim that she is a victim of violence, but it is not so easy to prove this, so she is contacted by a team of lawyers, of which the most famous is Sarah Weddingtonwho decide to take Norma’s case to court to uphold her right to an abortion. Thus begins the historic case of Roe v. Wade, a long legal battle that was fought with the main goal of legalizing the right to abortion. Litigation in Texas began in 1970. and two years later, the case goes to the US Supreme Court. The US state was represented by attorney Henry Menasco Wade, hence the name. “Rowe vs. Wade”. Wade, already famous in America for being the protagonist of the trial of Lee Harvey Oswald, the assassin of President Kennedy, met the trial with great tenacity and preparation, but became one of the men most hated by all pro-choice women. Meanwhile, Jane Rowe became, on the contrary, a symbol of all women who stood for freedom of choice on a personal topic and as delicate as an abortion. The United States has mobilized over the past two years, splitting between the anti-abortion and for a life and among those who fought for the right to terminate a pregnancy. In January 1973, the verdict finally sounded: the Federal Constitution recognized the right to abortion even in the absence of problems with the health of the woman, the fetus, and any other circumstances that are not mandatory. free choice. It was a great victory for all American women, who from then on could choose whether to continue with their pregnancy or not. Fifty years have passed since the historic decision that changed the fate of many women and recognized the fundamental right of choice.

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Supreme Court ruling on the right to abortion

But on June 24, 2022, a new decision takes the country back more than 50 years: Supreme Court overturns decision in Roe v. Wade: orflipped over, overturned. According to the judges, in fact the ’73 decision should have been “overturned” because it was “sensationally wrong from the start”, based on “an exceptionally weak argument that had negative consequences”, leading to “firing debate and intensifying controversy”. : it’s time to return to the Constitution and return the issue of abortion to the representatives of the people. In fact, there is no longer a constitutional right to have an abortion in America today. A solution that exacerbates differences within the country, between an open and progressive edge and a conservative and anti-liberal one. Individual states are free to enforce their own laws on this matter.: from Louisiana to South Dakota, from Kentucky to (apparently) Texas, abortion is now illegal and legal. States such as California, Oregon, New York State, and Washington State, which commit to insurance instead, are different. helping women who want to terminate the pregnancy. Increasingly highlighting the socioeconomic gap between women who can afford to travel to another state to have an abortion and those who instead will be forced to face unexpected pregnancies. Not to mention the possible spread of illegal abortions, which seriously threaten the lives of women, especially the poorest and most vulnerable. Thus the United States is going back fifty years: it is the American dream that is in decline. And it makes you think about the right that belongs to all of us on both sides of the ocean: the right to choose what to do with your body, your future, your psychophysical well-being.