Before Roe v. Wade: Voices That Shaped the Abortion Debate Before the Supreme Court's Ruling - Hardcover

The Supreme Court’s 1973 decision in Roe v. Wade legalized abortion–but the debate was far from over, continuing to be a political battleground to this day. In the decades since the case was decided, the American debate on abortion has moved away from the issues that the justices confronted more than three decades ago. Bringing to light key voices that illuminate the case and its cultural context, Before Roe v. Wade looks back and recaptures how the arguments for and against abortion took shape as claims about the meaning of the Constitution—and about how the nation could best honor its commitment to dignity, liberty, equality, and life.

 

In this ground-breaking book, Linda Greenhouse, a Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist who covered the Supreme Court for 30 years for The New York Times, and Reva Siegel, a renowned professor and former deputy dean at Yale Law School, collect the most significant historical, cultural, and legal documents which helped shape the Supreme Court’s controversial decision.

Before Roe v. Wade also gives readers an intimate glimpse into what the justices had in front of them as they met to decide the case. Also included are the essential legal briefs, as well as Justice Harry A. Blackmun's contemporary explanation of his majority opinion in the landmark decision that would change American politics for decades to come.
Linda Greenhouse, a Pulitzer-Prize-winning journalist, covered the Supreme Court for the New York Times for many years and now teaches at Yale Law School. She is the author of a biography, Becoming Justice Blackmun: Harry Blackmun's Supreme Court Journey (2005). A graduate of Radcliffe College (Harvard), she holds a Master of Studies in Law degree from Yale.
Reva B. Siegel is the Nicholas deB. Katzenbach Professor of Law at Yale University. She teaches constitutional law, civil rights, and legal history and writes on the ways courts interact with representative government and popular movements in interpreting the Constitution. She is coeditor of The Constitution in 2020 and Processes of Constitutional Decisionmaking. She received undergraduate, graduate, and law degrees from Yale.