Roe v. Wade, the landmark Supreme Court decision that
established a woman’s legal right to an abortion, was
decided on January 22, 1973. The Court ruled, in a 7-2
decision, that a woman’s right to choose an abortion
was protected by the privacy rights guaranteed by the
Fourteenth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution. The
legal precedent for the decision was rooted in the 1965
case of Griswold v. Connecticut, which established the
right to privacy involving medical procedures.

Members of the U.S. Supreme Court as seen in 1973.