Chapter 9
Since 1973, the Supreme Court’s controversial decision in Roe v. Wade has galvanized the nation like few other Supreme Court decisions in history. By a 7–2 vote, the Court in Roe struck down abortion laws in forty-six states and the District of Columbia. Opposition to Roe exploded from the outset, with a pro-life camp forming in heated resistance to the decision. Self-labelled “right to life” groups gained even more legitimacy when President Ronald Reagan made opposition to Roe v. Wade part of his litmus test for all judicial appointments. In response to Roe v. Wade, several states passed laws limiting abortion in various ways, such as requiring parental consent for minors to obtain abortions, twenty-four-hour waiting periods, and spousal notification, among others. Some, but not all, of these laws were upheld in Planned Parenthood v. Casey (1992), which upheld the basic holding of Roe v. Wade, while also modifying it in significant ways. Meanwhile, pro-choice groups have increased their own lobbying activities to defend the Roe v. Wade decision from attack. Since the early 1980s, no Democratic presidential nominee has been able to escape the requirement of professed support for the decision.
President George W. Bush’s appointment of Associate Justice Samuel Alito to replace the more moderate Sandra Day O’Connor on the U.S. Supreme Court fed the growing expectation that Roe v. Wade might be overturned by the increasingly conservative Supreme Court in the not-so-distant future. What effect would the overturning of Roe v. Wade have on the American political landscape?