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Politically Uncorrected: The Other Roe

Roe v Wade is, perhaps, the seminal court case of our era. Certainly no U.S. Supreme Court case has been cited more often in the acrimonious debate over Brett Kavanaugh’s nomination to the Supreme Court.  But a second critical court decision, less remembered today, but not less important was Planned Parenthood of Southeastern Pennsylvania v. Casey. Its history and background are as relevant today as they were back in 1992 when the case was resolved by the Supreme Court.

Roe made abortion a right; Casey defined the limits states could impose on that right.

In 1989 the Pennsylvania legislature had passed changes to its 1982 Abortion Control Act, requiring among other provisions “informed consent” procedures as well as a 24-hour waiting period before an abortion could be obtained. In addition a minor seeking an abortion would now require the approval of one parent or a court, and a married woman would have to notify her husband that she intended to get the procedure.

Challenged quickly, a federal district court struck down the entire Pennsylvania law only to be largely overturned by the 3rd Circuit Court of Appeals.

Ultimately, the case moved to the Supreme Court as the unwieldy Planned Parenthood of Southeastern Pennsylvania vs Casey (505 U.S. 833 (1992). In a 5 to 4 opinion, the Supreme Court upheld the Roe v. Wade decision but it also allowed states to continue to regulate abortions subject to clear limitations. Among them: the state could legally ban abortion if the fetus was viable and no “undue burden” was imposed on women.

No issue roiled Pennsylvania politics more at the time. It also slowly seeped into national electoral politics amid raging debates about abortion. At the center of it was the state’s governor Bob Casey a leading proponent of abortion control and an opponent of Roe. In fact, the governor had vetoed an earlier abortion control bill sent to him by the legislature because it failed to put enough constraints on Roe. Casey subsequently helped put together the bipartisan coalition that led to passage of a bill he could support.

Casey had emerged as of one the nation’s leading politicians opposing abortion. He was a politician some voters could disagree with throughout his career while continuing to support him. Most considered him a principled politician, even while railing at some of his policies.

Indeed, no politician ever showed more determination and forthrightness.  He started his career as a state senator from Scranton, eventually seeking the governorship three times– before winning on a fourth effort in 1986. In between, he was elected twice as Auditor General of the state. Along the way he suffered three losses for governor in his own party primary earning him the sobriquet, “the three-time loss” from Holy Cross, a reference to his undergraduate college.

In today’s terms Casey was “a cultural conservative and a social liberal.” He was no conservative on using the government to expand the economy and to help the disadvantaged.  His Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP) was a model for the rest of the nation. It provided insurance to children whose family income was too much to quality for medical assistance.

But despite Casey’s liberal inclinations, he opposed abortion rights with a vengeance. It cost him politically and created a huge stir within the state and the nation. It also put him at odds with many politicians in his own party.

After he made abortion a major focus of his governorship, he soon found himself shunned by the national Democratic Party. Notably, he sought to address the issue at the 1992 Democratic convention in NY, but was denied an opportunity to speak. Later Casey himself would write that buttons were distributed at the convention picturing him as the pope.

Casey became an anathema in the national party, while many Pennsylvania conventional delegates at the convention were dumbfounded-if not openly unhappy by the governor’s public stance.

Casey, nonetheless, continued to serve the remainder of his second term, remaining a champion of liberal policy as well as a foe of abortion rights. Probably no politician today either in Pennsylvania or the nation could emulate his political high-wire act supporting his seemingly discordant political views while remaining a popular, indeed legendary, figure in state politics.

Casey died in 2000 but the legacy of Planned Parenthood vs Casey continues along with Roe v Wade as a defining law of the land on abortion. And like Roe v. Wade, it now hovers portentously over national politics decades after the original decision.

5 Responses

  1. Dwight, you’re an idiot. Also, your mom called, she wishes she had the option for an abortion before you were delivered.

  2. Look at this, Terry Madona talking about Casey but only mentioning that it was GOVERNOR Casey a handful of times. Showing his bias with this piece, another reason his polls are #FakeNews

  3. There NEVER WAS a “right to abortion” in Roe vs Wade. Anyone who thinks so has no idea what they are talking about. Roe vs Wade was an EQUAL PROTECTION ruling.

    Roe vs Wade basically said that the right to life, and the right to prioritize their own well-being over that of another, applies to both the mother and the child. Therefore, any law with a blanket ban on abortion is not affording EQUAL PROTECTION to the rights of the child and the mother. Any such law gives sole and absolute protection to the child and no protection whatsoever to the mother. This is why you can, and do, have state laws banning abortion past a certain number of weeks of pregnancy and late-term abortions when the mother’s life or well being is not in danger. The standard for recent laws restricting abortion is typically centered around the age a child is deemed to be a viable human being. They typically make abortion illegal at the minimum age where a pre-term baby is known to have survived, or can plausibly survive, outside the womb. Also up for debate is whether minors have the legal right to abort without parental consent or parental knowledge, when they DO NOT have the right to other medical decisions be it heart surgery or a root canal. Then, there is also the argument over whether the Government must be compelled fund abortions or organizations which conduct them. This centers around centers around whether a woman has a right to demand that others pay for her abortions or birth control, or that others make it conveniently available or cheap. None of these are directly linked to Roe vs Wade and are not in any way affected by its existence or the lack thereof..

    The right to have an abortion never existed under Roe vs Wade. The absolute right to choose to have an abortion at any age, at anytime, under any circumstance and have the government pay for it — what extreme Liberals want — in fact violates equal protection and can be struck down citing Roe vs Wade because such laws violate equal protection in favor of the mother. If you do not understand this, you do not know WTF you are talking about regardless of where you stand on the issue of abortion. If Roe vs Wade is overturned NOTHING HAPPENS in the immediate aftermath — everything that was legal continues to be legal, anything that wasn’t continues to not be. It simply means that states and congress can make laws that ban abortions universally without regard for the mother or allow it universally with no regard for the child. Those laws will still need to be voted on and passed by the state legislatures or by congress and signed into law by governors or the POTUS.

    1. Dwight, you’re an idiot. Also, your mom called, she wishes she had the option for an abortion before you were delivered.

    2. I’m going to go out on a limb here and say you don’t actually know any liberals. Or any lawyers for that matter. None worth knowing, anyway.

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