Even More Than Abortion: The Constitutional Importance of Roe v. Wade

The Right to Contraception and the Right to Procreate Roe reaffirmed prior decisions protecting individuals’ rights to contraception and to decide whether to bear a child.4 Subsequent cases upholding the right to contraception, in turn, rely on Roe. [...] Virginia acknowledged the constitutional right to marry, and Roe affirmed that it is among the fundamental liberties protected by the right to privacy.6 Subsequent cases protecting the right to marry have relied on Roe. [...] For example, a 1978 Supreme Court decision upheld the right of single parents obligated to pay child support to marry without first obtaining the permission of a judge,7 and based this conclusion in part on Roe.8 This same fundamental liberty right was reaffirmed as recently as 2015 by the Supreme Court in a case that guaranteed same-sex couples the right to marry.9 The Right to Maintain Family Re. [...] For example, the Supreme Court in 1990, influenced by Roe and the liberty interest doctrine, extended the right to the ability to appoint a healthcare proxy and refuse unwanted medical treatment.19 The Supreme Court later confirmed that Roe recognized the importance of receiving medical intervention.20 Were Roe ever to be overturned, it would have ripple effects beyond the right to an abortion. [...] at 386 (citing Roe for the proposition that “it would make little sense to recognize a right of privacy with respect to other matters of family life and not with respect to the decision to enter the relationship that is the foundation of the family in our society.”) Given this history, Roe is also relevant to the current term’s Supreme Court cases on marriage equality.