Colautti v. Franklin

Some states designed laws, not to take away the choice of having an abortion, but to discourage abortions. Among these statutes were laws that prohibited certain abortion techniques, required patient counseling, established a waiting period, or required that abortions be performed in hospitals rather than clinics. Several Supreme Court decisions between 1976 and 1986 overturned these provisions on the grounds of vagueness or unreasonableness. In 1980, the anti-abortion movement played a pivotal role in the election of Ronald Reagan to the presidency. Reagan had promised to appoint Supreme Court justices who would make abortions illegal. In 1986, Reagan elevated William H. Rehnquist, an abortion foe, to the position of chief justice. In 1989, the case Webster v. Reproductive Health Services represented a significant retreat from abortion rights. That decision upheld a Missouri law that required viability testing in abortion cases after 20 weeks. The Webster case was only one vote short of overturning Roe v. Wade. In the 1990s, constitutional doctrine regarding abortion continued to be unstable and politicized.