Which Supreme Court decision in 1973 affirmed a woman's right to obtain an abortion under privacy rights doctrine?

• A. Roe v. Wade
• B. Griswold v. Connecticut
• C. Planned Parenthood v. Casey
• D. Doe v. Bolton

Answer: (A)

The main idea here is that the Constitution’s protection of privacy, drawn from the Due Process Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment, extends to a woman’s decision to terminate a pregnancy. In the 1973 decision, the Court held that this right to privacy includes the ability to choose an abortion, especially in the early stages of pregnancy. The ruling recognizes that while the state has interests in protecting maternal health and potential life, those interests do not justify an outright ban on abortions before viability. This sets up a framework where the right is protected, with states allowed to impose regulations as pregnancy advances.

Griswold v. Connecticut helps explain the lineage, since it recognized a right to privacy in the context of contraception, but Roe v. Wade specifically applies that privacy right to abortion. Around the same time, another 1973 decision, Doe v. Bolton, also addressed abortion rights, but Roe is the foundational case that first affirmed the right itself. Later cases, like Planned Parenthood v. Casey, refined how these rights are evaluated, but the Roe decision is the one that established the right in the first place.