Justice Ginsburg Appraises Roe V. Wade Decision; Says Court Should Have Limited Decision to Texas

U.S. Supreme Court Justice Ruth Ginsburg -- a strong supporter of a woman's right to choose -- is nonetheless not a big fan of the 1973 Roe v. Wade decision that legalized abortion from coast to coast, as she believes that decision went too far too fast, the Inquisitr website reports today (May 12, 2013).

Ginsburg declared last night (May 11) at the University of Chicago that the decision was an overreach by the High Court and politicized the controversial issue to the point of making it a relentless target for opponents. She also suggested that the decision had the unintended consequence of giving momentum to the pro-life movement which to some degree is playing out at the state level now.

Instead, the court should have issued a much narrower ruling that focused only on weighing the merits or demerits of the law in the state where the abortion rights lawsuit got its start, according to Ginsburg. In Roe v. Wade, the court should have steered away from a sweeping legalization of abortion, Ginsburg argued. Instead, a ruling should have taken the narrower approach of deeming unconstitutional the Texas law that spawned the case, which only allowed abortions deemed life-saving for a woman, she said.

The justice also criticized the 14th Amendment privacy-based Roe decision for being too doctor-centered rather than women's rights-centered.