Is Roe v. Wade the most important decision of his legacy?
Timehost: How did he feel about Roe v. Wade being thought of as his legacy? Fred Graham: He hated it. Especially because it was so vulnerable to scholarly criticism. Alain Sanders: Roe v. Wade is not only important in its own right. But I think it in general marks the end of the Supreme Court’s expansion of individual rights. Since Roe the court has generally shied away from creating new rights and concentrated instead in refining and cutting what’s been already on the books. Fred Graham: There’s much to that. Roe was so vulnerable to the criticism that it was result-oriented and not firmly grounded in the Constitution, it put the liberals on the defensive. Also, the political backlash must have been more violent than Blackmun ever imagined. He used to read all those critical letters, you know. Noisy_Cricketts_Rule asks: How have the demographics of abortion in the U.S. changed since the initial Roe v Wade decision? Fred Graham: I think the number grew quickly to 15 million a year, and
