High Quality Content by WIKIPEDIA articles! Roe v. Wade, 410 U.S. 113 (1973), was a controversial landmark decision by the United States Supreme Court on the issue of abortion. The Court decided that a right to privacy under the due process clause in the Fourteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution extends to a woman`s decision to have an abortion, but that right must be balanced against the state`s two legitimate interests for regulating abortions: protecting prenatal life and protecting the woman`s health. Saying that these state interests become stronger over the course of a pregnancy, the Court resolved this balancing test by tying state regulation of abortion to the woman`s current trimester of pregnancy.