{"id":249986,"date":"2021-08-05T14:45:04","date_gmt":"2021-08-05T19:45:04","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.liveaction.org\/news\/?p=249986"},"modified":"2021-09-01T13:38:23","modified_gmt":"2021-09-01T18:38:23","slug":"roe-wade-viability-later-gestation-medical","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/roe-wade-viability-later-gestation-medical\/","title":{"rendered":"Why did Roe v. Wade decision define ‘viability’ at a later gestation than medical experts?"},"content":{"rendered":"
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In the Supreme Court\u2019s Roe v. Wade<\/em> abortion decision, Justice Harry Blackmun allowed in his opinion for unrestricted abortion prior to \u201cviability\u201d \u2014 typically\u00a0defined as the age at which a child can survive outside the womb (with 24 weeks as a longtime standard, despite the fact that children have since survived at 21 weeks).\u00a0But Blackmun\u2019s arbitrary 24-week line appears to be in conflict with a citation and definition used in a brief filed by Roe attorney Sarah Weddington as well as in a brief filed on behalf of the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists (ACOG).<\/p>\n

The citation can be found in Louise Hellman and Jack Pritchard’s medical textbook, “Williams Obstetrics 493,” (14th edition from 1971).\u00a0 The text stated at the time, \u201cAbortion is the termination of a pregnancy at any time before the fetus has attained a stage of viability.” The medical reference book then went on to define viability this way: “Interpretations of the word \u2018viability\u2019 have varied between fetal weights of 400 g (about\u00a020 weeks<\/a>\u00a0of gestation) and 1,000 g (about 28 weeks of gestation)\u2026\u201d<\/p>\n

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Hellman and Pritchard Williams Obstetrics 14th edition 1971 Viability and abortion<\/p><\/div>\n

Brief by\u00a0Roe attorney<\/strong><\/p>\n

That citation was referenced by Roe attorneys Sarah Weddington, Linda Coffee, and Roy Lucas in a brief they filed to appeal a June 1970 decision by the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Texas, a lower court ruling which eventually led to the case being heard by the Supreme Court.<\/p>\n

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Roy Lucas was a lawyer who helped fashion the \u201cright to privacy\u201d legal argument used in\u00a0Roe v. Wade<\/em>,\u00a0according<\/a>\u00a0to the New York Times. He was once\u00a0nicknamed<\/a>\u00a0\u201cthe father of the new abortion\u2010reform movement\u201d according to research by Linda Greenhouse.<\/p>\n

The image below from the Lucas\/Weddington\/Coffee brief shows an identical definition of “viability” as was printed in the Williams Obstetrics textbook.<\/p>\n

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\"Image:

Roe v. Wade viability at 20 weeks (Sarah Weddington and Roy Lucas brief)<\/p><\/div>\n

ACOG brief also acknowledged “viability” at 20 weeks<\/strong><\/p>\n

A second friend-of-the-court brief was\u00a0filed<\/a>\u00a0by Lucas in the Doe v. Bolton<\/em> case (the companion case to Roe) on\u00a0behalf of ACOG, the American Medical Women\u2019s Association, the American Psychiatric Association, the New York Academy of Medicine, and others. That brief also acknowledged that the point of viability of the preborn child could be as early as 20 weeks.<\/p>\n

That brief (image below) Lucas\u00a0again cited Williams Obstetrics’ definition of “viability.”<\/p>\n

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ACOG Doe v Bolton brief on abortion viability at 400 grams or 20 weeks<\/p><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

Signing on to the brief was ACOG president\u00a0Keith P. Russell<\/a>\u00a0as well as former Planned Parenthood president\u00a0Alan F. Guttmacher, M.D<\/a>, among several others.<\/p>\n

Guttmacher, a former VP of the American Eugenics Society, was the first medical doctor to head Planned Parenthood and was\u00a0instrumental in leading the organization<\/a>\u00a0to begin committing abortions.\u00a0Russell served on the board of Planned Parenthood of Los Angeles and served two terms as ACOG president. According to the Los Angeles Times<\/a>,\u00a0Russell \u201cled medical professionals in their fight to liberalize the California abortion law in 1967.\u201d<\/p>\n

Interestingly, both editors of the Williams Obstetrics “viability” definition,\u00a0Pritchard and Hellman, lent their support in the brief as well. In 1971, Hellman received<\/a> Planned Parenthood’s Margaret Sanger award, named after their white supremacist founder. He became president of ACOG in 1974.<\/p>\n

The New York Times claimed that Hellman favored the liberalization of abortion,\u00a0reporting<\/a> that, in 1973, Hellman “was in charge of population affairs for the Federal Government” where “his office made plans to distribute a film advocating legal abortion to public schools and colleges.” But the idea was reportedly “shelved by Caspar W. Weinberger, then Secretary of Health, Education and Welfare, when anti-abortion groups rose in opposition.” In 1977, Hellman left the department to become medical director of the Population Reference Bureau.<\/p>\n