Page:Dobbs v. Jackson Women's Health Organization - Court opinion draft, February 2022.pdf/26

26 articles from the same time period.

A few of respondents' amici muster historical arguments, but they are very weak. The Solicitor General repeats Roe's claim that it is "doubtful abortion was ever firmly established as a common-law crime even with respect to the destruction of a quick fetus." Brief for United States as Amicus Curiae 26 (quoting Roe, 410 U.S., at 136). But as we have seen, great common-law authorities like Bracton, Coke, Hale, and Blackstone all wrote that a post-quickening abortion was a crime—and a serious one at that. Moreover, Hale and Blackstone (and many other authorities following them) asserted that even a pre-quickening abortion was "unlawful" and that, as a result, an abortionist was guilty of murder if the woman died from the attempt.

Instead of following these authorities, Roe relied largely on two articles by a pro-abortion advocate who claimed that Coke had intentionally misstated the common law because of his strong anti-abortion views. These articles have been discredited, and it has come to light that even members of Jane Roe's legal team did not regard them as serious