Kavanaugh Is the Last Hope for Abortion Rights
Liberals have reviled the conservative Supreme Court justice since his confirmation hearing, but now hope that he still cherishes the reputation for moderation that he cultivated.
Does Roe v. Wade have a future?
Photographer: Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images
For the first time in 30 years — a legal generation — the Supreme Court is poised to revisit the law of abortion rights in a fundamental way.
The last time, in 1992, amid expectations that Roe v. Wade might be reversed, the right to choose was saved by an unlikely coalition: Justices Anthony Kennedy and Sandra Day O’Connor, both President Ronald Reagan’s nominees, and David Souter, nominated by President George H.W. Bush, wrote a joint opinion in Planned Parenthood v. Casey that preserved the essential holding of Roe, which had made abortion a constitutional right in 1973.