"Our law affords constitutional protection to personal decisions relating to marriage, procreation, contraception, family relationships, child rearing and education. Casey, which she co-authored with Justices Anthony Kennedy and David Souter. It is summed up succinctly in this excerpt from Planned Parenthood v. The issue would arise several times during her time on the court. As such, she would allow reasonable controls set by the states. She believed that the government should have limited say over the most private of decisions.īut she had also been a state legislator and believed in states' rights to set their own laws. O'Connor sided with the majority in upholding the concept of Roe v. Casey, challenging a Pennsylvania law that imposed restrictions on abortion, such as waiting periods, parental consent and spousal consent. The biggest abortion case that O'Connor ruled on was 1992's Planned Parenthood v. Texas, which overturned state sodomy laws - that is, laws that targeted gay sex. Wade, notably Antonin Scalia, who would bring it up in discussion of other decisions, such as Lawrence v. "Too frequent overturning of precedent, she felt, undercut the court," said Carl Tobias, a law professor at the University of Richmond. And because O'Connor was a woman who had presided over the Arizona state Senate when it decriminalized abortion in that state, she was suspect, even though she declared her personal abhorrence for abortion.īut O'Connor had respect for opinions handed down by the Supreme Court, and she believed there needed to be good reason to overturn them.įrequent swing vote: Sandra Day O'Connor was no 'blank check' But it was under constant attack from the religious right - then as now. Wade, the 1973 landmark case that legalized abortion, had been the law of the land for eight years. ![]() ![]() When O'Connor sat in her confirmation hearings before the Senate Judiciary Committee in 1981, the national debate turned to a woman's right to choose an abortion.
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