This has been a heady week for the pro-life movement. First, the Supreme Court handed down a favorable decision in NIFLA v. Becerra, agreeing that pro-life crisis-pregnancy centers shouldn't have to post information about abortion. Then, Justice Anthony Kennedy, the Court's long-time conservative swing vote, announced his retirement. This has opened the way to what will inevitably be an intense battle over his replacement, along with the core principles Kennedy helped to defend. Above all, advocates and legislators seem to have one word in their minds as they prepare for this fight: Roe.
Over the past 45 years, Roe v. Wade, the 1973 Supreme Court decision that upheld a woman's right to obtain a legal, pre-viability abortion, has become infamous—loved by pro-choice feminists, reviled by the pro-lifers who see themselves as defenders of the unborn. At many points throughout his long career on the Court, Kennedy provided the decisive vote in cases that dealt with controversial cultural questions, including LGBT rights and religious freedom. He has been particularly influential in abortion-related cases, in part because his views have been mixed: While he has generally voted to uphold the fundamental principles outlined in Roe, he has at times expressed a deep moral ambivalence about abortion itself. Without him on the Court, pro-life advocates see an opportunity to secure a firmly anti-abortion majority.
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