[20180808]LSB10185_堕胎、肯尼迪法官和卡瓦诺法官.pdf

CRS INSIGHT Prepared for Members and Committees of Congress Legal SidebarLegal Sidebari i Abortion, Justice Kennedy, and Judge Kavanaugh August 8, 2018 In 1992, nearly 20 years after it concluded in Roe v. Wade that the Constitution protects a womans decision to terminate her pregnancy, the Supreme Court in Planned Parenthood of Southeastern Pennsylvania v. Casey adopted a new standard for reviewing the constitutionality of abortion regulations. Under this new standard, announced in a joint opinion written by Justices Sandra Day OConnor, Anthony Kennedy, and David Souter, a reviewing court must consider whether an abortion regulation imposes an “undue burden” on a womans ability to have an abortion before fetal viability, the gestational point when a fetus is able to live outside the mothers womb with or without artificial assistance. In the years that have followed, the Court has applied and further explained the undue burden standard in several subsequent cases. With the recent retirement of the last remaining Justice on the Court from the Casey plurality, questions have arisen about the future of the Courts abortion jurisprudence. This Legal Sidebar addresses these questions by