I read Liberty and Sexuality by David Garrow some more recently. This tome on the road to Roe v. Wade does leave at least one notable thing out.
A Roman Catholic Air Force captain got pregnant. At the time, the options were to get an abortion or dismissal. Susan Struck wanted to have her baby. She sued when that choice led to her discharge. Ruth Bader Ginsburg, then a women's rights advocate, was involved in her case.
(Susan Struck later became a Trump supporter.)
Ginsburg's brief largely rested on equality while also mixing in religious liberty and privacy rights. One summary notes:
This is not because she was conceptually confused, but because she registered that laws intervening in major life decisions and enforcing status roles may simultaneously implicate both equality and liberty—equal protection and due process. Restricting women’s liberty may be a means to the end of communicating inequality, and discriminating against women may diminish their opportunities to fashion fulfilling lives.
Justice Kennedy followed that due process and equal protection combo approach in his homosexual rights opinions. The feds decided they had a weak case and waived her discharge. They changed the automatic discharge policy. Ginsburg continued to be upset that such a good opportunity was lost. The Supreme Court eventually declared the case moot.
Ginsburg became a critic of Roe v. Wade, arguing it tried to do too much too fast, and was too physician-focused. Her brief shows she supported a substantive due process argument (her brief was submitted shortly before the Roe was handed down). Also, in 1973, gender equality was only beginning to be recognized by the Supreme Court. From the summary:
The Court made some fateful choices in those cases: to focus its sex equality jurisprudence on cases other than pregnancy, and so to develop its sex equality jurisprudence in isolation from its abortion jurisprudence.
When the Supreme Court dealt with cases involving pregnant teachers forced to take leave, they relied on substantive due process. When the Supreme Court heard pregnancy discrimination claims regarding health benefits, they rejected it. Justice Blackmun joined the majority!
Over time, Justice Blackmun and the Supreme Court expressed the right to choose an abortion more as a matter of sexual equality. Planned Parenthood v. Casey firmly recognized the mix of equality and privacy (liberty) that Ginsburg cited in her brief.
In the early 1970s, nine male justices, a majority of which were in their 60s or older, took a different approach. Roe did have a section about the specific burdens to women of pregnancy. However, it is anachronistic to be upset that gender equality was not used more, even if abortion rights cases often involved people active in the women's rights movement.
The case underlines the many shades of reproductive liberty. For instance, there was a broad understanding that it was a matter of conscience. Some people sneer at "religious" claims. We should not hand over that to conservatives. Clergy helped promote abortion rights, including helping women find abortion services when it was broadly illegal.
Catholics also have a variety of beliefs on moral matters. Most Catholics accept the use of birth control. They also often believe that abortion should be a matter of personal choice. Robert Drinan, a priest and later a member of Congress, argued it was better if the state stayed out of the field instead of picking and choosing what abortions were allowed.
I like to say life is complicated. That is a cliche sometimes. Other times, it is quite true. Abortion often shows the truth.