CROSSING THE LINE: THE POLITICAL AND MORAL BATTLE OVER LATE-TERM ABORTION

The 25 years following the Supreme Court\u27s landmark decision in Roe v. Wade have seen a tremendous amount of social and political activism on both sides of the abortion controversy. Far from settling the issue of a woman\u27s constitutional right to an abortion, the Roe decision galvanized pro-life and prochoice groups and precipitated many small battles in what many on both sides view to be a war between fetal protection and women\u27s access to reproductive choice. These battles have occurred at the judicial, grassroots, and political levels, with each side gaining and losing ground. Pro-life activists staged a nation-wide campaign of clinic protests, which led to Congress\u27s 1994 enactment of the Federal Access to Clinic Entrances law creating specific civil and criminal penalties for violence outside of abortion clinics. State legislatures imposed limitations on the right to abortion, including mandatory waiting periods and requirements for parental or spousal notification. Many of these limitations were then challenged before the Supreme Court, which struck down or upheld them according to the undue burden standard of review articulated in Planned Parenthood of Southeastern Pennsylvania v. Casey