Supreme Court rules 7-2 in Roe v. Wade that the 14th Amendment's liberty clause protects a woman's right to abortion, establishing the trimester framework for state regulation

The Supreme Court ruled 7-2 on January 22, 1973, that the 14th Amendment's due process clause protected a woman's right to choose abortion as part of the constitutional right of privacy established in Griswold. Justice Blackmun's majority opinion created a trimester framework: states could not regulate abortion in the first trimester; could regulate to protect maternal health in the second; and could prohibit abortion in the third except to preserve the life or health of the mother. Justices White and Rehnquist dissented — White called it "an exercise of raw judicial power." The ruling invalidated abortion restrictions in 46 states and made the United States one of the world's most permissive abortion law jurisdictions.