one thing most people assume today is that dwayne roe v. wads decided in 1973 -- i was a law clerk to justice brennan -- but roe v. wade people assumed it was a radical left wing decision that radically changed the law on abortion in terms terms of wt had historically been. in fact that was not the case. abortion was legal throughout western civilization. it was legal at the time that the constitution was adopted. it was legal in fact until in late 19th century when it finally began to change, and abortion was illegal then in the history of the united states for only about 80 or so years between then and sprem court decision in row row. what rowe did was to basically reinstate the law with respect to choice that had been in place at the time that the constitution was adopted. now, one of the requests andy raid, would this have surprised the framers? that is in some sense an unanswerable question. on the one hand the framers themselves lived in a world in which abortion was commonplace, it was legal, had never been illegal in western history,