Perhaps one of the most controversial Supreme Court cases ever, if not outright the most controversial, is Roe v. Wade, 410 U.S. 113 (1973). It is certainly the most popular Supreme Court case of all time. It all started when Jane Roe, a.k.a. Norma McCorvey, a single mother of two in Dallas, Texas, got pregnant for a third time. Feeling that she could not financially support a third child, twenty-one-year old Jane Roe filed a lawsuit. At that time the Texas law on abortion was severely restrictive, basically stating that a woman could only get a “legal” abortion if the mother’s life was threatened by the continuation of her pregnancy. The defendant in the case was Dallas County District Attorney, Henry Wade, who represented the State of Texas.
