Planned Parenthood V. Casey - Background of The Case

Background of The Case

Five provisions of the Pennsylvania Abortion Control Act of 1982 authored by Rep. Stephen F. Freind were being challenged as unconstitutional under Roe v. Wade, which first recognized a constitutional right to have an abortion in the liberty protected by the Due Process Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment.

• The informed consent rule under the Act required doctors to inform women about detriments to health in abortion procedures.
• The spousal notice rule required women to give prior notice to their husbands.
• The parental notification and consent rule required minors to receive consent from a parent or guardian prior to an abortion.
• The fourth provision imposed a 24-hour hold before obtaining an abortion.
• The fifth provision challenged in the case was the imposition of certain reporting mandates on facilities providing abortion services.

The case was a seminal one in the history of abortion decisions in the United States. It was the first case that provided an opportunity to overturn Roe since the two liberal Justices, William Brennan and Thurgood Marshall, were replaced with the Bush-appointed Justices David Souter and Clarence Thomas. Both were viewed as ostensible conservatives compared to their predecessors. This left the Court with eight Republican-appointed justices - five of whom had been appointed by Presidents Reagan or Bush, both of whom were well known for their opposition to Roe. Finally, the only remaining Democratic appointee - Justice Byron White - had been one of the two dissenters from the original Roe decision.

At this point, only two of the Justices were obvious supporters of Roe v. Wade: Blackmun, the author of Roe, and Stevens, who had joined opinions specifically reaffirming Roe in City of Akron v. Akron Center for Reproductive Health and Thornburgh v. American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists. Given these circumstances, some pro-choice advocates expected Roe to be overruled.

The case was argued by ACLU attorney Kathryn Kolbert for Planned Parenthood, with Linda J. Wharton serving as Co-Lead Counsel. Pennsylvania attorney general Ernie Preate argued the case for the State. Upon reaching the Court of last resort, the United States defended the Act in part by urging the Court to overturn Roe as having been wrongly decided, filing an amicus curiae brief with representation from Solicitor General Ken Starr for the Bush Administration.