"Amicus curiae briefs in Roe made questions of race, population control, and race genocide central to debate about the case. Initially, when the Court conferenced the case in December 1971, Justices William 0. Douglas and Thurgood Marshall raised concerns about whether existing abortion restrictions denied "equal protection by discriminating against the poor." By the time Justice Harry Blackmun drafted the final version of Roe, however, questions of race and population control had receded into the background of the opinion. Significantly, Blackmun described the framework of Roe-one based on constitutional rights and the history of the medical profession-as a way of avoiding the more emotional questions surrounding race and abortion."