Journal of Legislation Volume 45 | Issue 2 Article 6 6-7-2019 The eedN to Codify Roe v. Wade: A Case for National Abortion Legislation Kathryn N. Peachman Follow this and additional works at: https://scholarship.law.nd.edu/jleg Part of the Constitutional Law Commons, Family, Life Course, and Society Commons, Law and Gender Commons, Legislation Commons, Maternal and Child Health Commons, Politics and Social Change Commons, Reproductive and Urinary Physiology Commons, Social Control, Law, Crime, and Deviance Commons, Supreme Court of the United States Commons, and the Women's Health Commons Recommended Citation Kathryn N. Peachman, The Need to Codify Roe v. Wade: A Case for National Abortion Legislation, 45 J. Legis. 272 (2018). Available at: https://scholarship.law.nd.edu/jleg/vol45/iss2/6 This Note is brought to you for free and open access by the Journal of Legislation at NDLScholarship. It has been accepted for inclusion in Journal of Legislation by an authorized editor of NDLScholarship. For more information, please contact
[email protected]. THE NEED TO CODIFY ROE V. WADE: A CASE FOR NATIONAL ABORTION LEGISLATION Kathryn N. Peachman† INTRODUCTION Forty-six years ago, the Supreme Court ruled that a woman had a fundamental legal right to decide whether to end her pregnancy under substantive due process protection. Yet today, that right sometimes appears to remain no more solidified than it did in 1973 with the decision of Roe v. Wade. This country has remained extremely divided on the issue of abortion, and courts and state legislatures continue to erode the effectiveness of the right given by Roe and limit the opportunities women have to exercise control over their own bodies.