Why is the decision of the Supreme Court important? Since many people identify pregnancy only after the sixth week, pre-viability timelines leave women with very little time and opportunity to make a decision to abort.Īlso read | Explained: Why has Roe v Wade case raised concern over LGBTQ+ rights?
The length of a pregnancy is commonly calculated from the start of a person’s most recent menstrual period. An average pregnancy lasts about 40 weeks.įoetal viability is often seen as the point at which the rights of the woman can be separated from the rights of the unborn foetus. ‘Roe’ struck down laws that made abortion illegal in several states, and ruled that abortion would be allowed up to the point of foetal viability, that is, the time after which a foetus can survive outside the womb.įoetal viability was around 28 weeks (7 months) at the time of the ‘Roe’ judgment nearly 50 years ago experts now agree that advances in medicine have brought the threshold down to 23 or 24 weeks (6 months or a little less), and newer studies show this could be further pegged at 22 weeks. ‘Wade’ was the defendant Henry Wade, the Dallas County (Texas) district attorney at the time. The case is sometimes referred to simply as “Roe”, the listed name of the 22-year-old plaintiff, Norma McCorvey.
0 kommentar(er)
