By Andrea Picciotti-Bayer
Almost 50 years after Roe v. Wade, more than 100,000 people will walk through Washington today in support of life, chanting loudly enough to be heard within the chambers of the Supreme Court. And this year, for the first time in decades, the nation’s highest court appears ready to listen.
Beginning with its disastrous Roe v. Wade decision, the Supreme Court has mistakenly embraced the idea that a woman’s constitutionally protected interests include the right to abort her unborn child. A few decades into the Roe era, the court reviewed several provisions in Pennsylvania’s Abortion Control Act. These included requiring a waiting period and informed consent, spousal notice, and (for minors) parental consent prior to an abortion.
A plurality of Supreme Court justices in Planned Parenthood v. Casey concocted a standard for evaluating the constitutionality of abortion regulations. “Only where the state regulation imposes an undue burden on a woman’s ability to make this decision [to abort],” they said, “does the power of the State reach into the heart of the liberty protected by the Due Process Clause.” Applying this standard, they upheld all of the challenged provisions except the requirement for spousal consent.
