828 Chapter 31 From Boomers to Millennials
conservatives and the Roman Catholic Church. The
state assembly repealed its antiabortion law by a sin-
gle vote. Feminists regarded this as a crucial but
sobering victory. If a liberal state such as New York
had barely mustered a majority in favor of abortion
rights, how long would it take for the campaign to
prevail elsewhere?
Jimmy Carter Signs the House of
Representative Resolution for the Equal Rights Amendment, 1972at
http://www.myhistorylab.com
Roe v. Wade
The question soon became moot; the United States
Supreme Court took the decision out of the hands
of state legislatures. A key factor was a new concept
in constitutional law: the “right to privacy.” In the
nineteenth century, the Catholic Church had per-
suaded many state legislatures to ban dissemination
of information on contraceptives and birth control.
View theImageConnecticut was one such state. But in 1961
Estelle Griswold, head of Planned Parenthood in
Connecticut, opened a birth control clinic to chal-
lenge the law. In the case of Griswold v.
Connecticut, the Supreme Court, headed by Earl
Warren, struck down the Connecticut statute, con-
tending that it violated couples’ “right to privacy.”
While conceding that no such term appeared in the
Constitution, the Court held that various other
constitutional provisions—such as freedom of
speech and press and prohibitions against unrea-
sonable searches—together provided an “umbrella”
of privacy-related rights. This “right to privacy”
protected people from unwarranted intrusions by
the state.
Then, in 1969, Norma McCorvey asked her doc-
tor for an abortion. She was unmarried, unemployed,
twenty-five years old, and pregnant. Her doctor
refused. Abortion, he told her, was illegal in Texas
unless performed to save the woman’s life. McCorvey’sThe National Organization for Women holds a rally in Illinois for the Equal Rights Amendment. In 1982, as the deadline for ratification was about
to expire, a majority in the Illinois legislature favored the ERA but not by a sufficient margin. The defeat in Illinois meant that the ERA was dead.