Roe v. Wade stands as a milestone to women’s freedom and equality. Yet more than 30 years after the Supreme Court recognized the right to choose and the paramount importance of women’s health, attacks on women’s privacy, and on health protections in particular, continue. Despite the Court’s clear rulings protecting women’s health, anti-choice activists, legislators, and jurists continue to attack legal safeguards for women’s health. Time after time, anti-choice lawmakers vote down proposed health exceptions to abortion restrictions, and prominent anti-choice leaders openly state their opposition to protecting women’s health as required by law.  

With a new Chief Justice and a new Associate Justice on the U.S. Supreme Court, the balance on the nation’s highest court is uncertain.  But the Court’s decision in the upcoming cases of Gonzales v. Planned Parenthood Federation of America and Gonzales v. Carhart could offer insight into Roe’s fate. These two cases (which will likely be decided together in spring 2007) challenge the Federal Abortion Ban, a ban on abortion care as early as the 12th week in pregnancy that lacks an exception to protect women’s health.  The Court will decide whether to reaffirm its longstanding holding that abortion restrictions must contain an exception to protect women’s health or abandon this critical protection.

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