Roe v. Wade: Life v.

Choice

Kelly Hwang and Amber Fauerbach

Group Website
Senior Division
 Along with Korematsu v. United States, Brown v. Board of Education, Miranda v.

Arizona, and Texas v. Johnson, Roe v. Wade is another landmark case that was, and is,

one of the most controversial and debatable Supreme Court cases. Upon learning that the

topic for this year’s National History Day Competition was Debate and Diplomacy, all of

these prominent cases came to mind. We wanted to take this opportunity to learn in depth

about a case that is widely debated to this day as well as one that has affected the most

people since its decision. Limiting it down to Korematsu v. United States and Roe v.

Wade, we finally ruled out the first due to both of our slight emotional ties to the Roe v.

Wade case. At first we had decided to make a display board, however, that changed due

to our exceptional creativity yet slight deficit of artistic ability.

Many long visits to university libraries pouring over dozens of books are now

under our belts. Lucky for us our history teacher has a fantastic collection of Time

Magazines and Newsweeks along the walls of his classroom. Unlucky for us most of

these magazines in the early 1970s were too preoccupied with the Vietnam War to

mention much about the 1973 Roe v. Wade Supreme Court case. Primary sources were

difficult to find, though we located a complete transcript of the actual case which helped

us with our research immensely. We also spent a few extra night hours figuring out all

the little quirks about making a website.

This 1973 Supreme Court case that we chose to do our project on is based on a

debate between whether an unborn baby has a right to life or whether the mother of that

baby has a right to her choice. This is one of the most debated issues in our country

today. The topic is debated between doctors, mothers, students, religious leaders, and

presidential candidates. For some, it is the deciding factor that determines who they will
place their ballot for and for others it helps to determine which side of the political party

spectrum they fall. Alone, this topic has intensified the division between the Democratic

and Republican parties. Roe v. Wade and the topic of the morality of abortion have

donated diplomatically to our nation as well as striking debate everywhere the word

abortion is heard.