The legacy of Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O’Connor — who passed away last week — looms large over the court’s Dec. 8 conference, where the justices are expected to decide next steps for a controversial case involving medication abortion. Despite O’Connor’s well-documented personal opposition to abortion, she proved while on the court that she valued the rule of law over her own ideology. In the wake of her passing, it’s imperative her colleagues who currently sit on the high court do the same in considering Alliance for Hippocratic Medicine v. Food and Drug Administration (FDA). Not only will this case affect the future of reproductive rights — it has far-reaching implications for the politicization of medicine in the United States.
Few Supreme Court Justices have championed the rule of law over personal ideology quite like O’Connor, particularly when it comes to reproductive rights. At her 1981 confirmation hearing, the former appellate court judge and Republican state senator explicitly voiced her personal convictions against abortion “as birth control or otherwise.” However, when given the opportunity to eradicate the constitutional right to abortion that had previously been established by Roe v. Wade, not only did she act as a crucial swing vote in affirming this right in Planned Parenthood v. Casey in 1992, but she served as chief architect for the majority opinion.
The above excerpt was originally published in The Messenger.
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