In the recent Webster decision, U.S Chief Justice Rehnquist noted that the key elements of the Roe frame-work-trimesters and viability-are not found in the Constitution or anywhere else one would expect o find them. There I no reason why the state’s interest in protecting human life should come into existence only at viability, he declared.
Earlier, in the City of Akron case in 1083. Justice Sandra O’Connor pointed out that, far from giving convincing reasons for choosing viability as a point of reference, Justice Blackmun had given no reasons at all in Roe v. Wade. “Accordingly,” she wrote at the time, “I believe that the State’s interest in protecting potential human life exists throughout the pregnancy.”
