Thirty-five years since Roe vs. Wade decision

In three days, it will be thirty-five years since the US Supreme Court decided the landmark case Roe vs. Wade–a case that to this day, protects a woman’s right to choose.

The decision came down January 22, 1973. Now, decades later the issue of whether abortion should be legal is still at the forefront of public debate.

The case stemmed from a lawsuit filed against the state of Texas by Norma McCorvey–known publicly as Jane Roe.

She claimed she was pregnant as a result of rape and that the state’s laws against abortion infringed on her privacy.

A recent study says the country’s abortion rate is at it’s lowest since 1974. Data shows that North Carolina’s rates are at their lowest point since the 1990s.

In 2006 there were 874 reported abortions in New Hanover County, making up around two percent of the statewide total.

Those numbers aren’t low enough for groups like the New Hanover pro-life council.

“It’s a tragedy,” said 22-year-old Jennifer Hassell, who attended the council’s fifteenth annual vigil in downtown Wilmington on Saturday to protest the decision. “We’re killing our own offspring and that’s not right.”

Other attendees agreed.

“People always said to me, well you cannot legislate morality,” said Pastor R. Tony McGhee of the Wilmington Christian Center. “But I think Roe vs. Wade has taken that concept and turned it on it’s head where immorality has been legislated.”

Experts say some possible reasons why abortion rates are down are easier access to contraception and fewer abortion clinics.

One researcher said nearly ninety percent of counties in the US don’t have an abortion provider.