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Part III Reading Comprehension (40% )
Section B (10%)
Passage 1
In August 1969 an unmarried pregnant woman living in Texas wanted to terminate her pregnancy by having an abortion. Her doctor refused this request because Texas law made it a crime to have an abortion unless the operation was necessary to save the mother’s life. 66 Throughout the legal proceedings, the woman was identified as Jane Roe to protect her anonymity. Roe’s lawyers claimed that the Texas abortion laws violated her rights under the due process clause of the 14 th Amendment, which prohibited states from depriving their citizens of life, liberty, or property without due process of law.
67 Justice Harry Blackmun recognized that a woman’s right to an abortion could be limited by “ a compelling state interest” to protect her health and life. Based on medical evidence, Justice Black-mun concluded that during the second trimester” of a woman’s pregnancy (months 4 to 6) ,the stat might intervene to regulate abortion to protect the mother’s well-being. And the state could regulate or prohibit abortion during the third trimester (months 7 to 9) .68
The Roe decision has generated continuing controversy. 69 Its critics can be roughly divided into two groups: those who oppose the decision because they believe abortion is murder and those who believe that the Court improperly substituted its policy preference for the will of the people as expressed through their elected representatives in state governments. 70 And so it has been since 1973，when the Hoe case was decided. Efforts to modify or overturn the Roe decision have continued.
In Webster v. Reproductive Health Services ( 1989)，for example, the Court upheld provisions of a Missouri law that restricted the right to an abortion, a retreat from the Roe decision that stopped short of overturning it.
A.However, during the first trimester ( months 1 to 3) of a pregnancy, it seemed unlikely that there would be “a compelling state interest” to restrict abortion rights to protect the health and life of the mother.
B.Abortions performed in the first trimester (months 1 to 3)pose virtually no long-term risk of such problems as infertility, ectopic pregnancy, spontaneous abortion ( miscarriage) or birth defect,and little or no risk of preterm or low-birth-weight deliveries.
C.So the woman sought legal help and filed suit against Henry Wade, district attorney for Dallas County, Texas.
D.The Supreme Court ruled that the Texas statutes on abortion were unconstitutional and that a woman did have the right to terminate her pregnancy.
E.Justice Byron White accurately remarked in his dissent that the right to an abortion is an issue about which “reasonable men may easily and heatedly differ. ”
F.Women’s rights advocates have hailed Roe as a landmark victory.