Roe v. Wade, 410 US 113 - Supreme Court 1973

—the Supreme Court held that the right to privacy "is broad enough to encompass a woman's decision whether or not to terminate her pregnancy."

The Court recognized that "regulation limiting...[fundamental] rights may be justified only by a `compelling state interest'... and that legislative enactments must be narrowly drawn to express only the legitimate state interests at stake. "

—the Supreme Court held that the Fourteenth Amendment's protection of certain aspects of personal privacy included a guarantee that a woman could decide whether to terminate her pregnancy without unjustified state interference.

Prior to the adoption of the 1974 Louisiana Constitution, the United States Supreme Court recognized that one aspect of the "liberty" protected by the Due Process Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment is "a right of personal privacy, or a guarantee of certain areas or zones of privacy."

—that a woman's decision to terminate her pregnancy results in a legally operative harm for purposes of the necessity defense

The court in Roe held; "if the State is interested in protecting fetal life after viability, it may go so far as to proscribe abortion during that period, except when it is necessary to preserve the life or health of the mother".

A complaint based on a single past incident, containing allegations of unspecified, speculative threats of uncertain harm that might occur at some indefinite time in the future, cannot support respondents' standing to maintain this action.

Here, Plaintiffs claim that the right to pursue their chosen, lawful occupation is a fundamental right but have not cited any case law—and the Court has not found any—supporting this argument.

But it has been applied where the named plaintiff does have a personal stake at the outset of the lawsuit, and where the claim may arise again with respect to that plaintiff; the litigation then may continue notwithstanding the named plaintiff's current lack of a personal stake.

—because at that point the fetus "presumably has the capability of meaningful life outside the mother's womb,"