Federal three-judge panel rules Texas abortion ban unconstitutional, holding that the right to choose is fundamental under the 9th Amendment

A three-judge federal panel ruled 2-1 on June 17, 1970, that Texas's criminal abortion statute violated the 9th Amendment's reservation of rights to the people, as incorporated against the states through the 14th Amendment. Judges Irving Goldberg and William Taylor found that the "fundamental right of single women and married persons to choose whether to have children is protected by the Ninth and Fourteenth Amendments." Judge T. Whitfield Davidson dissented. The panel declined to issue an injunction against enforcement, however, which forced the case to the Supreme Court on direct appeal — and left Texas's law technically in effect while the case proceeded.