History

• Roe v. Wade is the landmark case decided by the United States Supreme Court that detailed the right of women to have an abortion until "the fetus becomes 'viable.'"
  
  

Significance

• The decision concluded "right of privacy, whether it be founded in the Fourteenth Amendment's concept of personal liberty and restrictions upon state action, as we feel it is, or, as the District Court determined, in the Ninth Amendment's reservation of rights to the people, is broad enough to encompass a woman's decision whether or not to terminate her pregnancy."
  
  

First Trimester

• The court deemed a fetus "viable," meaning able to live outside the womb at 28 weeks, or sometimes earlier, at 24. A woman may obtain an abortion, according to the decision, without restriction, in the first 12 weeks of her pregnancy.
  
  

Second and Third Trimesters

• Roe v. Wade ruled that after viability, abortion must be available if protecting a woman's health and/or life.
  
  

Additional Information

• Subsequent laws passed by states require women to follow further processes before being eligible for an abortion, including age limit, mandatory counseling and waiting periods, and so on.