"By arguing that the fetus did not have any constitutional rights, Blackmun undercut the central argument of the pro-life movement, but he was not yet ready to concede that fetal life had no value or that the state had no right to protect it under any circumstances. At some point during pregnancy, he believed, the state might have a “compelling interest” in protecting fetal life. He was not sure, though, where that point was. He personally favored drawing the line at the end of the first trimester, a line that he admitted was “arbitrary.” Thurgood Marshall and Lewis Powell advocated drawing the line at viability, arguing that if only first-trimester abortions were permitted, some women who needed an abortion might not be able to obtain one, since the first twelve weeks of pregnancy offered a very narrow time frame for performing abortions. After spending several days discussing the issue with his colleagues, Blackmun produced an awkward compromise in the opinion that he wrote for the Court. Women had an unrestricted right to an abortion during the first trimester, he declared. During the second trimester, up to the point of viability, the state could implement restrictions on abortion, but only for the purposes of protecting a woman’s health not for the purpose of preserving fetal life. After viability, states had the option, though not the requirement, to ban abortion entirely, as long as they made exceptions for cases in which abortion was needed to protect a woman’s life or health."