dicussion pols & timed essay

Brandon Tu

Professor Hamman J.D.

POLS 001

19 July 2020

Final Report Outline

Intro Main Idea: Definition of the population and issue

Thesis: Although women have faced many obstacles to have equal rights as men, cases like Roe

v. Wade show that change is coming.

P1 Main Idea: Court Case: Introduction to the issue of abortion in the U.S.

Supporting Idea 1: Before issues like this were important, abortion was seen as a bad thing and

was not allowed.

Facts: In the past, the United States viewed abortion as common crime, something that was seen

as a crime all over the country.

Supporting Idea 2: Shirley Wheeler is known as the first woman in 1900 to be held criminally

responsible for having an abortion.

Facts: “She was convicted of manslaughter last July after a two-day trial under the provisions of

an abortion law….sentenced to two years” (Jon Nordheimer).

Supporting Idea 3: There have been states like California who passed the Therapeutic Act in

1967 that allowed abortions.

Facts: Families all over the county would take trips or flights to California to have the abortion

since it was legal, calling the trip “non-family plan”.

P2 Main Idea: Court Case: Background of Roe v Wade Case

Supporting Idea 1: Norma McCorvey was a mother who was pregnant with another child and

wanted an abortion. She thought she could get one in Texas, by lying that she was raped.

However, laws in Texas did not allow for abortions.

Fact: Texas only protected women, and allowing abortions if for the purpose of saving the life of

the mother.

Supporting Idea 2: After not finding a clinic to have an abortion she was forced to have the child

and wanted attorneys for her case.

Fact: She hired Linda Coffee and Sarah Weddington, which then filed a lawsuit in the United

States District Court for the Northern District of Texas.

Supporting Idea 3: The judges of the case ruled that the Texas law was unconstitutional, but did

not grant any punishment and have Texas do anything about it.

Fact: The judges claimed that the Texas law was unconstitutional, and it violated the right to

privacy from the Ninth Amendment.

P3 Main Idea: Supreme Court Case

Supporting Idea 1: The court had to consider whether or not the appeal was moot, subject to

debate, and whether or not the appeal had standing, meaning if she could still represent pregnant

women since she was not pregnant anymore.

Fact: The court ruled that her appeal was not moot because she had given birth already, and her

appeal did not have standing because she did not have right to represent other pregnant women.

Supporting Idea 2: There was an exception for her case since it was considered “capable o

repetition, yet evading review”.

Fact: “If that termination makes a case moot, pregnancy litigation seldom, will survive much

beyond the trial stage, and appellate review will be effectively denied” (McKenna).

Supporting Idea 3: On January 22, 1973, the Court voted in favor of McCorvey.

Fact: They voted in a 7-2 decision that women have a fundamental right to choose whether or not

to have abortions without excessive government restriction.

Conclusion: How it affects people today.