National Abortion Rights Action League

About the author: The National Abortion Rights Action League is a nonprofit organization that works toward establishing more effective contraceptive options, better access to other kinds of reproductive health care and information, and reducing the need for abortions while maintaining a woman's right to choose.

The Supreme Court's 1973 decision to legalize abortion, Roe v. Wade, established that a woman's right to choose abortion fell under the constitutionally protected right to privacy. While recognizing a woman's right to privacy, Roe also protected the rights of the fetus by banning elective abortion after viability. Roe has protected the lives of thousands of women who may otherwise have risked their lives by obtaining medically-unsafe back-alley abortions. Despite the constitutionality of the Roe decision, since 1992, the Supreme Court has enacted several...