Roe V. Wade: The Oral Argument For Abortion

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The abortion debates began in 1973, when Roe v. Wade created an upheaval nationwide. Many states openly defined Roe while others, such as Pennsylvania, sought to circumvent Roe by imposing procedural hurdles upon women seeking abortions. The oral argument for Planned Parenthood v. Casey (1992) began on 22 April 1992 with Kathryn Kolbert representing Planned Parenthood of Southern Pennsylvania. Kolbert argued that the provisions in the Pennsylvania Abortion Control Act of 1982 violated the decision made in Roe v. Wade that the right to an abortion was fundamental. If the fundamental right to abortion were to be removed, women would be forced to back alleys to receive abortions which would be detrimental to the women’s life and health. She also …show more content…
The act was comprised of four provisions that restricted the fundamental right a woman had to obtaining an abortion. The four provisions included spousal notification, information disclosure, a twenty-four-hour waiting period, and parental consent for minors. It was also a requirement that all Pennsylvania abortion clinics report themselves to the state. These provisions were challenged by several abortion clinics and physicians. The U.S. District Court of Eastern Pennsylvania declared all the provisions to be unconstitutional when a suit was brought forward by five abortion clinics and a physician before the provisions went into effect. However, the State Court of Appeals reversed this decision claiming that all provisions except the spousal notification were indeed constitutional. Planned Parenthood of Southern Pennsylvania then appealed to the U.S. Supreme Court. Nonetheless, they decided that the bulk of the Pennsylvania law was constitutional. The Court first declared that a women’s decision to get an abortion was protected from state interference by the Constitution’s Due Process Clause. The Court also rejected parts of Roe,