to men was approached and at times crossed by
several of the most famous 1980’s actresses, in-
cluding Weaver and Glenn Close, and it repre-
sented on screen tensions being experienced in
American society, as more households began to
require two incomes to remain financially secure.
Further Reading
Maguffe, T. D.Sigourney Weaver. New York: St.
Martin’s Press, 1989.
Sellers, Robert.Sigourney Weaver. London: Rob-
ert Hale, 1992.
Thomas L. Erskine
See also Action films;Aliens; Business and the
economy in the United States; Close, Glenn; En-
vironmental movement; Feminism; Film in the
United States;Ghostbusters; Gibson, Mel; Murray,
Bill; Women in the workforce.
Webster v. Reproductive
Health Services
Identification U.S. Supreme Court decision
Date Decided on July 2, 1989
InWebster v. Reproductive Health Services, the
Court upheld a Missouri state law regulating abor-
tion, thereby signaling to other states that abortion reg-
ulation was constitutionally permissible.
Webster v. Reproductive Health Servicesbegan in
1986, when Missouri health care professionals
involved in providing abortion services chal-
lenged a state law regulating abortion. The Mis-
souri law barred the use of public funds or re-
sources for the purposes of abortion counseling or
to perform abortions except to save a mother’s life.
It also required health care professionals to perform
tests, such as assessments of fetal weight and lung
maturity, to determine the viability of a fetus after
twenty weeks gestational age. The law’s preamble de-
clared that life begins at conception, so a fetus
should enjoy constitutional rights and protections.
The district court found the law’s restrictions on
abortion unconstitutional and in violation of the
precedents established in the Supreme Court’s deci-
sion inRoe v. Wade(1973) protecting women’s abor-
tion rights. Missouri attorney general William Web-
ster appealed the case to the Supreme Court.
Supreme Court Action The Court upheld the Mis-
souri law’s abortion provisions. The decision was
complex, in that a portion of it was unanimous,
while other portions were contested. Chief Justice
William H. Rehnquist wrote the majority opinion,
which stated that the Missouri law did not contradict
Roe v. Wade, because it allowed pregnant women to
terminate their pregnancies so long as neither pub-
lic funds nor public facilities were used during such
abortion procedures. The Court did not explicitly
rule on the law’s preamble proclaiming life to begin
at conception. Instead, the Court interpreted the
preamble statement as a “value judgment” favoring
childbirth over abortion. According to the Court,1036 Webster v. Reproductive Health Services The Eighties in America
Norma McCorvey, left, better known as the Jane Roe ofRoe v. Wade
(1973) stands with attorney Gloria Allred outside the U.S. Supreme
Court Building in April, 1989, after attending the oral arguments in
Webster v. Reproductive Health Services.(AP/Wide World
Photos)